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Best MiniMax M2.5 Alternatives

MiniMax M2.5 by MiniMax is a open source model priced at $0.3/1.2 per 1M tokens (in/out). It's already affordable, but you might want different strengths or features.

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMaxOpen Source

Input

$0.3/1M

Output

$1.2/1M

Context

200K

Max Output

128K

Why Switch from MiniMax M2.5?

Text-only — no vision or audio
No tool-use support
Newer provider — smaller ecosystem

Top Alternatives

#1DeepSeek V3DeepSeekOpen Source

Dramatically cheaper (72% less), open-source and self-hostable.

Input

$0.14/1M

53% cheaper

Output

$0.28/1M

77% cheaper

Context

164K

Max Output

16K

MMLU-Pro: 78%(-4.0%)HumanEval: 89%(-1.0%)
#2Llama 4 MaverickMetaOpen Source

23% cheaper, comparable performance, 1M context (5x more).

Input

$0.31/1M

3% more

Output

$0.85/1M

29% cheaper

Context

1M

Max Output

32K

MMLU-Pro: 80.5%(-1.5%)HumanEval: 90.2%(+0.2%)
#3Llama 4 ScoutMetaOpen Source

46% cheaper, 10M context (50x more), adds vision.

Input

$0.18/1M

40% cheaper

Output

$0.63/1M

48% cheaper

Context

10M

Max Output

32K

MMLU-Pro: 74.2%(-7.8%)HumanEval: 86%(-4.0%)
#4DeepSeek R1DeepSeekReasoning

Reasoning tier option.

Input

$0.55/1M

83% more

Output

$2.19/1M

83% more

Context

128K

Max Output

64K

MMLU-Pro: 84%(+2.0%)HumanEval: 92%(+2.0%)
#5Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogleBudget

50% cheaper, 1M context (5x more), adds vision, tool-use.

Input

$0.15/1M

50% cheaper

Output

$0.6/1M

50% cheaper

Context

1M

Max Output

66K

MMLU-Pro: 76%(-6.0%)HumanEval: 89.5%(-0.5%)
#6o3OpenAIReasoning

Comparable performance, adds vision, tool-use.

Input

$0.4/1M

33% more

Output

$1.6/1M

33% more

Context

200K

Max Output

100K

MMLU-Pro: 87%(+5.0%)HumanEval: 94.5%(+4.5%)
#7GLM-4.7Zhipu AIMid-Tier

Comparable performance, adds vision.

Input

$0.6/1M

100% more

Output

$2.2/1M

83% more

Context

200K

Max Output

128K

MMLU-Pro: 84.3%(+2.3%)HumanEval:
#8Gemini 3 FlashGoogleBudget

Comparable performance, 1M context (5x more), adds vision, tool-use.

Input

$0.5/1M

67% more

Output

$3/1M

150% more

Context

1M

Max Output

66K

MMLU-Pro: 78%(-4.0%)HumanEval: 90%(Same)

Full Comparison Table

ModelInput $/1MOutput $/1MContextMMLU-ProHumanEvalScore
DeepSeek V3DeepSeek$0.1453% cheaper$0.2877% cheaper164K78%-4.0%89%-1.0%83
Llama 4 MaverickMeta$0.313% more$0.8529% cheaper1M80.5%-1.5%90.2%+0.2%78
Llama 4 ScoutMeta$0.1840% cheaper$0.6348% cheaper10M74.2%-7.8%86%-4.0%70
DeepSeek R1DeepSeek$0.5583% more$2.1983% more128K84%+2.0%92%+2.0%68
Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle$0.1550% cheaper$0.6050% cheaper1M76%-6.0%89.5%-0.5%66
o3OpenAI$0.4033% more$1.6033% more200K87%+5.0%94.5%+4.5%63
GLM-4.7Zhipu AI$0.60100% more$2.2083% more200K84.3%+2.3%61
Gemini 3 FlashGoogle$0.5067% more$3.00150% more1M78%-4.0%90%Same56
Mistral Large 3Mistral$2.00567% more$5.00317% more128K83%+1.0%91%+1.0%53
GPT-4o MiniOpenAI$0.1550% cheaper$0.6050% cheaper128K68%-14.0%87.2%-2.8%52
Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle$2.00567% more$12.00900% more1M91%+9.0%95%+5.0%50
Gemini 3 ProGoogle$2.00567% more$12.00900% more1M89.8%+7.8%94%+4.0%50
Mistral Medium 3Mistral$0.4033% more$2.0067% more128K76%-6.0%87%-3.0%50
GLM-5Zhipu AI$1.00233% more$3.20167% more200K70.4%-11.6%91%+1.0%48
o4-miniOpenAI$1.10267% more$4.40267% more200K85%+3.0%93.5%+3.5%46
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic$5.001567% more$25.001983% more200K89.5%+7.5%95%+5.0%43
GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI$2.00567% more$16.001233% more200K90%+8.0%96.5%+6.5%43
GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI$1.75483% more$14.001067% more200K89%+7.0%95.5%+5.5%43
GPT-5OpenAI$1.25317% more$10.00733% more128K88.5%+6.5%95%+5.0%43
Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle$1.25317% more$10.00733% more1M87.5%+5.5%93.5%+3.5%43
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic$3.00900% more$15.001150% more200K86%+4.0%94%+4.0%36
Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic$3.00900% more$15.001150% more200K84.5%+2.5%93%+3.0%36
Grok 4xAI$3.00900% more$15.001150% more128K86%+4.0%93%+3.0%33
Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic$0.80167% more$4.00233% more200K69.4%-12.6%88.1%-1.9%32
GPT-4oOpenAI$2.50733% more$10.00733% more128K80.5%-1.5%91%+1.0%30

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Alternatives for Other Models