MiniMax-M2.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3.5 Plus
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.5 Plus 66, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65, MiniMax-M2.5 61). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MiniMaxMiniMax-M2.5
61/100- ECI146.7
- Price$0.30 / $1.20
- Context205K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
65/100- ECI146.7
- Price$0.60 / $3.60
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.5 Plus
66/100- ECI146.8
- Price$0.40 / $2.40
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.5 Plus 66/100, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65/100, MiniMax-M2.5 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 Plus for raw capability and MiniMax-M2.5 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.5 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7
- Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M2.5 $0.525 · Qwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2.5 204,800 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17BMiniMax-M2.5: Text · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingMiniMax-M2.5 and Qwen3.5 397B-A17BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | MiniMax-M2.5 | Qwen3.5 397B-A17B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 74 | 74 | 74 |
| Price | 25% | 63 | 44 | 52 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 90 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 37 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 61/100 | 65/100 | 66/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | Qwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 146.7 | 146.7 | 146.8 (best) |
| ECI rank | #66 of 148 | #67 of 148 | #65 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 86.4% (best) | 84.9% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 31.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 88.9% (best) | 86.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 25.4% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $0.60 | $0.40 |
| Output | $1.20 (best) | $3.60 | $2.40 |
| Cached input | $0.03 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.525 (best) | $1.35 | $0.90 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official MiniMax (minimax.io) API | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 204,800 tokens | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | MiniMax-M2.5 | qwen3.5-397b-a17b | qwen3.5-plus |
| API providers | 21 | 23 (best) | 10 |
| Released | Feb 12, 2026 | Feb 15, 2026 | Feb 16, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- MiniMax-M2.5$5.40
- Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
- Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: MiniMax-M2.5, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Qwen3.5 Plus?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.5 Plus 66/100, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65/100, MiniMax-M2.5 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 Plus for raw capability and MiniMax-M2.5 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.5, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Qwen3.5 Plus?
MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.5 Plus costs $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.5 versus $0.90 for Qwen3.5 Plus (1.7× as much) and $1.35 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (2.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.5 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148), MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 (#66 of 148) and Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 142.3–147.9), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M2.5, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3.5 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 Plus leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.5. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M2.5 up to 131,072, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
MiniMax-M2.5 accepts text; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniMax-M2.5 and Qwen3.5 397B-A17B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.5 Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.5 Plus is the newest, released Feb 16, 2026. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B came out Feb 15, 2026; MiniMax-M2.5 came out Feb 12, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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