Model comparison

Grok 4.6 vs MiniMax-M2.1

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 5.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.9

Rank #21 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1 MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.6 scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.6 leads 61.4 to 16.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 80% for Grok 4.6 and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.6.
  • Grok 4.6 accepts more context: 500K tokens versus 205K.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.6 and MiniMax-M2.1 specifications
Grok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
ProviderxAIMiniMax
Noometry Index56.938.9
Released2026-08-122025-12-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window500K205K
Max output500K131K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$6$1.20
Results tracked4922

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 58.5 (#16), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena WebDev16171384
LMArena Coding14651421
ALE-Bench1,508623.83
DeepSWE67.5%—
FrontierCode48%—
CursorBench41.4%—
FrontierSWE25.3%—
SciCode56.5%—
WeirdML67.3%—

Agentic & Tool Use Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#27), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench—36.6%
APEX-Agents65.3%—
GDP.pdf17.2%—
Vending-Bench 29,047—

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 61.4 (#20), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
NYT Connections (extended)80%11.2%
LMArena Hard Prompts14471411
ARC-AGI-267.1%—
SimpleBench75.9%—
ARC-AGI-187.5%—
CritPt19.7%—
Chess Puzzles40%—
EBR-Bench30.5%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.3%—
LMCA48.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index156.44—

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 67.0 (#24), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math14231397
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)66%—
FrontierMath Tier 431.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.2%—
ProofBench51%—

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#20), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Expert14671431
GPQA Diamond94%—
SimpleQA Verified49.3%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—11.8%

Multimodal Not comparable

Grok 4.6: 43.6 (#23), MiniMax-M2.1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision1263—
Blueprint-Bench 233.2%—
Furniture Assembly40%—
LMArena Document1452—

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 53.0 (#74), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English14201378
LMArena Chinese14801430
LMArena French14611404
LMArena German14311381
LMArena Japanese13761287
LMArena Korean13971298
LMArena Russian14221387
LMArena Spanish14041397

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 75.4 (#63), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following14311400

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 44.5 (#66), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query14541416

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 62.3 (#80), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text14281392
LMArena Creative Writing14281361
LMArena Multi-Turn14251396

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.6 better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 5.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Grok 4.6 lists at $2 and $6.

Is Grok 4.6 or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.5 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.6 does, with 500K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.6 and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.6 has 49 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.

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