Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs MiniMax M2.5 (Comparative Analysis)
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Comparative Analysis: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs. MiniMax M2.5
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Overview
MiniMax M2.5 was released 5 days before Claude Sonnet 4.6.
 Claude Sonnet 4.6 |  MiniMax M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
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 | 204.8K tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 128K tokens | 196.6K tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | February 17, 2026 5 months ago February 17th, 2026 | February 12, 2026 5 months ago February 12th, 2026 |
Capabilities & Features
Compare supported features, modalities, and advanced capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 📝Text🖼️Image📁File | 📝Text |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | OptionalEffort: Max, High, Medium, LowDefault: Medium | Always enabled |
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 Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning ModeContent Moderation |
Open Source Model availability | Proprietary | Available on HuggingFace → |
Pricing
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is roughly 20.0x more expensive compared to MiniMax M2.5 for input tokens and roughly 16.7x more expensive for output tokens.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $3.00 per million tokens | $0.15 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $15.00 per million tokens | $0.90 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 | $0.05 per million tokens |
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 M2.5.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | MiniMax M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
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)) | 1,247 Elo (#35 in Website (57.5% win rate)) |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and MiniMax M2.5 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 M2.5 by MiniMax can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 204.8K token context window. Very affordable at $0.15/M input and $0.90/M output tokens. Released February 12th, 2026.Explore More Comparisons
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Models optimized for creative writing
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Technical analysis and explanations
🔬Science
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