Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Yi-Lightning
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
MiniMaxSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Yi-Lightning in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 40.1 to 27.0.
- MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | 01.AI |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 36.5 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | 2024-12-02 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 205K | — |
| Max output | 131K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 22 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132), Yi-Lightning: 27.0 (#315)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1313 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 12.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91), Yi-Lightning: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning Yi-Lightning leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301), Yi-Lightning: 24.9 (#137)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | 1302 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142), Yi-Lightning: 33.5 (#173)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1396 | 1300 |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143), Yi-Lightning: 34.8 (#182)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | 1286 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123), Yi-Lightning: 42.4 (#191)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1269 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1320 |
| LMArena French | 1405 | 1304 |
| LMArena German | 1380 | 1267 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1228 |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | 1192 |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | 1255 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | 1315 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108), Yi-Lightning: 67.6 (#191)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1278 |
Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98), Yi-Lightning: 39.4 (#176)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1297 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114), Yi-Lightning: 50.4 (#178)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1302 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1311 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Yi-Lightning?
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 27.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Yi-Lightning share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Yi-Lightning has 18.