DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs MiniMax M2
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
DeepSeek R1 (0528)
67.8DeepSeek · May 2025
The open reasoning model that started it all — RL-trained chain-of-thought, MIT licensed, and a research landmark.
MiniMax M2
68.9MiniMax · Oct 2025
A 10B-active MoE tuned purely for agents and code — striking capability-per-active-parameter at rock-bottom prices.
The verdict
DeepSeek R1 (0528) wins 2 of the 2 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 1.8x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). MiniMax M2 also takes 205K of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528).
Benchmark head-to-head 2–0
Specs & pricing
| DeepSeek R1 (0528) | MiniMax M2 | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 67.8 | 68.9 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.55 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $2.19 | $1.2 |
| Context window | 128K | 205K |
| Max output | 64K | — |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | yes (MIT) |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Jun 2025 |
| Released | May 2025 | Oct 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $8.79 | $4.80 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or MiniMax M2?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) wins 2 of the 2 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 1.8x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). MiniMax M2 also takes 205K of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528).
- Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or MiniMax M2?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) costs $0.55/$2.19 per million input/output tokens, while MiniMax M2 costs $0.3/$1.2. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $8.79 versus $4.80.
- Which model is better for coding, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or MiniMax M2?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.
More comparisons
DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.5MiniMax M2 vs GPT-5.5DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.2MiniMax M2 vs GPT-5.2DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.1MiniMax M2 vs GPT-5.1DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5MiniMax M2 vs GPT-5DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5 miniMiniMax M2 vs GPT-5 miniDeepSeek R1 (0528) vs OpenAI o3MiniMax M2 vs OpenAI o3