MiniMax M2 vs OpenAI o4-mini
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
MiniMax · Oct 2025
A 10B-active MoE tuned purely for agents and code — striking capability-per-active-parameter at rock-bottom prices.
OpenAI · Apr 2025
A compact reasoning model that punched far above its price on math — 92.7% on AIME 2025 at $1.10 per million input tokens.
The verdict
MiniMax M2 and OpenAI o4-mini split the 2 benchmarks they share evenly (1–1), so capability alone won't settle this one. On price the gap is dramatic: MiniMax M2 works out roughly 3.7x cheaper per blended million tokens. MiniMax M2 also takes 205K of context versus 200K for OpenAI o4-mini. 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 1–1
Specs & pricing
| MiniMax M2 | OpenAI o4-mini | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 68.9 | 80.9 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.3 | $1.1 |
| Output price / 1M | $1.2 | $4.4 |
| Context window | 205K | 200K |
| Max output | — | 100K |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | no |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text, image |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 2025 | May 2024 |
| Released | Oct 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $4.80 | $17.60 |
* 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, MiniMax M2 or OpenAI o4-mini?
- MiniMax M2 and OpenAI o4-mini split the 2 benchmarks they share evenly (1–1), so capability alone won't settle this one. On price the gap is dramatic: MiniMax M2 works out roughly 3.7x cheaper per blended million tokens. MiniMax M2 also takes 205K of context versus 200K for OpenAI o4-mini. 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, MiniMax M2 or OpenAI o4-mini?
- MiniMax M2 costs $0.3/$1.2 per million input/output tokens, while OpenAI o4-mini costs $1.1/$4.4. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $4.80 versus $17.60.
- Which model is better for coding, MiniMax M2 or OpenAI o4-mini?
- On SWE-bench Verified — the standard agentic-coding benchmark — MiniMax M2 scores 69.4% versus 68.1% for OpenAI o4-mini, making MiniMax M2 the stronger pick for coding agents.