Model Comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs MiniMax M1 40KWhich is better in 2026?

MiniMax M1 40K significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs MiniMax M1 40K — which is better?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (by Anthropic) and MiniMax M1 40K (by MiniMax) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 1 benchmarks (TAU-bench Retail), while MiniMax M1 40K is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Airline). MiniMax M1 40K significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output

Choose MiniMax M1 40K if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 5 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 1 benchmarks (TAU-bench Retail), while MiniMax M1 40K is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Airline).

MiniMax M1 40K significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude 3.5 Sonnet specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3.5 Sonnet specifies output context (200,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
MiniMax
MiniMax M1 40K
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas MiniMax M1 40K does not.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

MiniMax M1 40K

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while MiniMax M1 40K uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

MiniMax M1 40K

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while MiniMax M1 40K was released on 2025-06-16.

MiniMax M1 40K is 8 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Oct 22, 2024

1.8 years ago

MiniMax M1 40K

Jun 16, 2025

1.1 years ago

7mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher TAU-bench Retail score (69.2% vs 67.8%)
MiniMax
Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (69.2% vs 67.2%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (80.6% vs 77.6%)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (55.6% vs 49.0%)
Higher TAU-bench Airline score (60.0% vs 46.0%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and MiniMax M1 40K side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
MiniMax M1 40K
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
MiniMax
MiniMax M1 40K

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs MiniMax M1 40K.

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or MiniMax M1 40K?

MiniMax M1 40K significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and MiniMax M1 40K is made by MiniMax. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude 3.5 Sonnet compare to MiniMax M1 40K in benchmarks?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet scores GSM8k: 96.4%, DocVQA: 95.2%, AI2D: 94.7%, HumanEval: 93.7%, BIG-Bench Hard: 93.1%. MiniMax M1 40K scores MATH-500: 96.0%, AIME 2024: 83.3%, MMLU-Pro: 80.6%, ZebraLogic: 80.1%, OpenAI-MRCR: 2 needle 128k: 76.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and MiniMax M1 40K?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and MiniMax M1 40K supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and MiniMax M1 40K?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3.5 Sonnet and MiniMax M1 40K?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and MiniMax M1 40K is developed by MiniMax.

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