Command A Max vs MiniMax-M2 Instruct: which model should you choose?
We compared Command A Max and MiniMax-M2 Instruct on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Command A Max has the stronger average benchmark score; MiniMax-M2 Instruct is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Command A Max
Command A Max is a multimodal model from Cohere. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $14.28 per million input tokens and $70.22 per million output tokens, and averages 79.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.28 / 1M
- Output
- $70.22 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 79.9
- Open weights
- No
MiniMax-M2 Instruct
MiniMax-M2 Instruct is a multimodal model from MiniMax. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.11 per million input tokens and $25.04 per million output tokens, and averages 79.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.11 / 1M
- Output
- $25.04 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 79.4
- Open weights
- Yes
Specification comparison
| Spec | Command A Max | MiniMax-M2 Instruct | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $14.28 | $5.11 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $70.22 | $25.04 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 128,000 | A |
| Max output | 8,192 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 79.9 | 79.4 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1443.7 | 1442.2 | A |
| Open weights | No | Yes | B |
Benchmark comparison
Command A Max wins 7, MiniMax-M2 Instruct wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Command A Max | MiniMax-M2 Instruct | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 84.3 | 82.1 | 2.2 | Command A Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 74.5 | 73.7 | 0.8 | Command A Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.7 | 69.9 | 0.2 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| HumanEval | 83.4 | 86.7 | 3.3 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| MATH-500 | 85.7 | 82.1 | 3.6 | Command A Max |
| AIME 2025 | 77.2 | 77.8 | 0.6 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| LiveCodeBench | 73.1 | 71.1 | 2.0 | Command A Max |
| IFEval | 86.7 | 87.3 | 0.6 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| TruthfulQA | 82.2 | 80.0 | 2.2 | Command A Max |
| HellaSwag | 87.1 | 88.5 | 1.4 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| MMMU | 74.6 | 74.1 | 0.5 | Command A Max |
| Arena Elo | 1443.7 | 1442.2 | 1.5 | Command A Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Command A Max costs about $28.27 per million tokens and MiniMax-M2 Instruct costs about $10.09. MiniMax-M2 Instruct is roughly 64% cheaper than Command A Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Command A Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for MiniMax-M2 Instruct. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Command A Max wins 7, MiniMax-M2 Instruct wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Command A Max leads MiniMax-M2 Instruct by 0.5 points (79.9 versus 79.4).
The price picture favours MiniMax-M2 Instruct. The context picture favours Command A Max. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Command A Max for quality-sensitive work and MiniMax-M2 Instruct for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Command A Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 8,192-token output limit.
Choose MiniMax-M2 Instruct if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning.
FAQ
Is Command A Max better than MiniMax-M2 Instruct?
On the index average, Command A Max leads MiniMax-M2 Instruct by 0.5 points (79.9 versus 79.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Command A Max wins 7 benchmarks, MiniMax-M2 Instruct wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Command A Max or MiniMax-M2 Instruct?
MiniMax-M2 Instruct is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.09 per million tokens, versus $28.27 for Command A Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Command A Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. MiniMax-M2 Instruct has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Command A Max is proprietary; MiniMax-M2 Instruct is open weights.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Command A Max for quality-sensitive work and MiniMax-M2 Instruct for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.