Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Step 3
Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
StepFunSummary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Step 3 in 1 category; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 3 leads 27.6 to 15.8.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 39.9 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | — |
| Max output | 131K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 22 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132), Step 3: 39.5 (#144)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1367 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91), Step 3: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning Step 3 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301), Step 3: 27.6 (#102)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
Math Too close to call
MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142), Step 3: 34.9 (#148)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1396 | 1366 |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143), Step 3: 36.2 (#161)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | 1333 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: —, Step 3: 34.9 (#81)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1176 |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123), Step 3: 46.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1380 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | — |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108), Step 3: 70.6 (#159)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1332 |
Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98), Step 3: 40.3 (#152)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1326 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114), Step 3: 54.5 (#146)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1340 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Step 3?
Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Step 3 better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (40.1 vs 39.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Step 3 share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.