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Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax M2

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.4 to 26.4. MiniMax M2 is 7.6x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · MiniMax · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 58.4 to 26.4, ranking #2 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Sonnet 5.5 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, MiniMax M2 is roughly 7.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude Sonnet 5.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 58.4 and ranks #2 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

Choose MiniMax M2

  • cost matters — it's about 7.6x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic
MiniMax M2
MiniMax
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
58.4
#2
26.4
#172
Reasoning
57.2
#3
26.1
#171
Coding
47.6
#2
17.6
#135
Agents
43.3
#3
9.1
#148
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$10.00 / M
$1.20 / M
Context window
1,000,000
1,000,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
MiniMax M2
Math
38.7#25
19.3#179
Tool use
35.8#2
9.4#151
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

47 reported for Claude Sonnet 5.5 · 16 for MiniMax M2

1 shared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-bench Multilingual), while MiniMax M2 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

MiniMax M2 costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 6.7x more expensive than MiniMax M2 ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($10.00/1M tokens) is 8.3x more expensive than MiniMax M2 ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is more expensive than MiniMax M2.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$10.00
Best providerAnthropic
MiniMax
MiniMax M2
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMiniMax
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Both models have the same input context window of 1,000,000 tokens. MiniMax M2 can generate longer responses up to 1,000,000 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 5.5 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
MiniMax
MiniMax M2
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output1,000,000 tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas MiniMax M2 does not.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

MiniMax M2

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while MiniMax M2 uses MIT.

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

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Proprietary

Closed source

MiniMax M2

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on 2026-09-28, while MiniMax M2 was released on 2025-10-27.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 11 months newer than MiniMax M2.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Sep 28, 2026

3 weeks ago

11mo newer
MiniMax M2

Oct 27, 2025

11 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-01, while MiniMax M2's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Claude Sonnet 5.5's training data extends to 2026-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without MiniMax M2's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Jun 2026

MiniMax M2

—

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is available from Anthropic. MiniMax M2 is available from MiniMax, Novita.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $10.00/1M

MiniMax M2

minimax logo
MiniMax
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M2 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
✓ Preferred
MiniMax M2
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax M2.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax M2?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.4 to 26.4. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is made by Anthropic and MiniMax M2 is made by MiniMax. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude Sonnet 5.5 compare to MiniMax M2 in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores BenchCAD (with Python tool): 96.3%, ArXivMath (with tools): 95.2%, Global-MMLU: 92.1%, MILU: 91.6%, SWE-bench Multilingual: 90.3%. MiniMax M2 scores Tau2 Telecom: 87.0%, LiveCodeBench: 83.0%, MMLU-Pro: 82.0%, AIME 2025: 78.0%, GPQA: 78.0%.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 cheaper than MiniMax M2?

MiniMax M2 is 6.7x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00/M input and $10.00/M output via anthropic. MiniMax M2 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via minimax.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M2?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports 1.0M tokens and MiniMax M2 supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M2?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (58.4 vs 26.4), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.30/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M2?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic and MiniMax M2 is developed by MiniMax.

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