Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs MiniMax-01 (Comparative Analysis)
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Comparative Analysis: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs. MiniMax-01
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Overview
MiniMax-01 was released 1 year before Claude Sonnet 4.6.
 Claude Sonnet 4.6 |  MiniMax-01 | |
|---|---|---|
Model Provider The organization behind this AI's development | Anthropic | MiniMax |
Input Context Window Maximum input tokens this model can process at once | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 128K tokens | 1M tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | February 17, 2026 5 months ago February 17th, 2026 | January 15, 2025 1 year ago January 15th, 2025 |
Knowledge Cutoff Latest training-data date reported by the provider | Not reported | March 31, 2024 |
Capabilities & Features
Compare supported features, modalities, and advanced capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax-01 | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 📝Text🖼️Image📁File | 📝Text🖼️Image |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | OptionalEffort: Max, High, Medium, LowDefault: Medium | Not reported |
Output Types Supported output formats | 📝Text | 📝Text |
Tokenizer Text encoding system | Claude | Other |
Key Features Advanced capabilities | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning Mode✓Content Moderation | Function CallingStructured OutputReasoning ModeContent Moderation |
Open Source Model availability | Proprietary | Available on HuggingFace → |
Pricing
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is roughly 15.0x more expensive compared to MiniMax-01 for input tokens and roughly 13.6x more expensive for output tokens.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax-01 | |
|---|---|---|
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $3.00 per million tokens | $0.20 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $15.00 per million tokens | $1.10 per million tokens |
Web Search Cost Additional cost for each web search operation | $0.01 per search | Not specified |
Cache Read Cost Cost to reuse cached input tokens | $0.30 per million tokens | Not specified |
Cache Write Cost Cost to write input tokens to the cache | $3.75 per million tokens | Not specified |
1-Hour Cache Write Cost Cost to cache input tokens for one hour | $6.00 per million tokens | Not specified |
Benchmarks
Compare relevant benchmarks between Claude Sonnet 4.6 and MiniMax-01.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax-01 | |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Overall model quality across independent evaluations | 47.2 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Coding Index Programming performance across independent evaluations | 63 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Agentic Index Ability to complete multi-step agentic tasks | 40.8 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Best Design Arena Score Highest human-preference Elo score across design arenas | 1,314 Elo (#14 in Game Dev (60.2% win rate)) | Benchmark not available. |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and MiniMax-01 unique.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 1M token context window. Premium pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output tokens. Includes built-in content moderation for safer outputs. Released February 17th, 2026.MiniMax-01 by MiniMax understands both text and images. It can handle standard conversations with its 1M token context window. Very affordable at $0.20/M input and $1.10/M output tokens. Released January 15th, 2025.Explore More Comparisons
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Models optimized for creative writing
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Content creation and marketing tasks
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Technical analysis and explanations
🔬Science
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