GPT-5 mini vs MiniMax M2
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
OpenAI · Aug 2025
A fast, cheap distillation of GPT-5 for high-volume workloads — one fifth of the flagship's price with most of its everyday capability.
MiniMax · Oct 2025
A 10B-active MoE tuned purely for agents and code — striking capability-per-active-parameter at rock-bottom prices.
The verdict
GPT-5 mini wins 2 of the 2 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 1.3x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). GPT-5 mini also takes 400K of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2. And MiniMax M2 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Benchmark head-to-head 2–0
Specs & pricing
| GPT-5 mini | MiniMax M2 | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | — | 68.9 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.25 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $2 | $1.2 |
| Context window | 400K | 205K |
| Max output | 128K | — |
| Open weights | no | yes (MIT) |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text, image | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | Jun 2025 |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Oct 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $5.50 | $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, GPT-5 mini or MiniMax M2?
- GPT-5 mini wins 2 of the 2 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 1.3x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). GPT-5 mini also takes 400K of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2. And MiniMax M2 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, GPT-5 mini or MiniMax M2?
- GPT-5 mini costs $0.25/$2 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 $5.50 versus $4.80.
- Which model is better for coding, GPT-5 mini or MiniMax M2?
- On SWE-bench Verified — the standard agentic-coding benchmark — GPT-5 mini scores ~71% versus 69.4% for MiniMax M2, making GPT-5 mini the stronger pick for coding agents.