Kimi K2 Thinking vs MiniMax M2
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
Kimi K2 Thinking
67.6Moonshot AI · Nov 2025
A trillion-parameter open reasoning agent that can chain 200–300 tool calls — the open-weights agentic standout of late 2025.
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
Kimi K2 Thinking wins 4 of the 4 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 2.0x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Kimi K2 Thinking also takes 262K of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2.
Benchmark head-to-head 4–0
Specs & pricing
| Kimi K2 Thinking | MiniMax M2 | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 67.6 | 68.9 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.6 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $2.5 | $1.2 |
| Context window | 262K | 205K |
| Max output | — | — |
| Open weights | yes (Modified MIT) | yes (MIT) |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Jun 2025 |
| Released | Nov 2025 | Oct 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $9.75 | $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, Kimi K2 Thinking or MiniMax M2?
- Kimi K2 Thinking wins 4 of the 4 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for MiniMax M2. MiniMax M2 is about 2.0x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Kimi K2 Thinking also takes 262K of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2.
- Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or MiniMax M2?
- Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.6/$2.5 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 $9.75 versus $4.80.
- Which model is better for coding, Kimi K2 Thinking or MiniMax M2?
- On SWE-bench Verified — the standard agentic-coding benchmark — Kimi K2 Thinking scores 71.3% versus 69.4% for MiniMax M2, making Kimi K2 Thinking the stronger pick for coding agents.