Llama 4 Maverick Chat vs MiniMax-M2 Instruct: which model should you choose?
We compared Llama 4 Maverick Chat and MiniMax-M2 Instruct on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Llama 4 Maverick Chat has the stronger average benchmark score; Llama 4 Maverick Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Llama 4 Maverick Chat
Llama 4 Maverick Chat is a multimodal model from Meta AI. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.09 per million input tokens and $23.20 per million output tokens, and averages 79.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.09 / 1M
- Output
- $23.20 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 79.7
- Open weights
- Yes
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 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat | MiniMax-M2 Instruct | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.09 | $5.11 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $23.20 | $25.04 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 128,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 32,768 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 79.7 | 79.4 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1419.9 | 1442.2 | B |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Llama 4 Maverick Chat 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 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat | MiniMax-M2 Instruct | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 80.5 | 82.1 | 1.6 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| GPQA Diamond | 73.0 | 73.7 | 0.7 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| SWE-bench Verified | 66.6 | 69.9 | 3.3 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| HumanEval | 83.2 | 86.7 | 3.5 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
| MATH-500 | 84.8 | 82.1 | 2.7 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| AIME 2025 | 78.9 | 77.8 | 1.1 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| LiveCodeBench | 76.3 | 71.1 | 5.2 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| IFEval | 87.4 | 87.3 | 0.1 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| TruthfulQA | 81.5 | 80.0 | 1.5 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| HellaSwag | 88.8 | 88.5 | 0.3 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| MMMU | 75.4 | 74.1 | 1.3 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| Arena Elo | 1419.9 | 1442.2 | 22.3 | MiniMax-M2 Instruct |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Llama 4 Maverick Chat costs about $9.62 per million tokens and MiniMax-M2 Instruct costs about $10.09. Llama 4 Maverick Chat is roughly 5% cheaper than MiniMax-M2 Instruct. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 128,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Llama 4 Maverick Chat wins 7, MiniMax-M2 Instruct wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Llama 4 Maverick Chat leads MiniMax-M2 Instruct by 0.3 points (79.7 versus 79.4).
The price picture favours Llama 4 Maverick Chat. The context picture is effectively a tie. 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 Llama 4 Maverick Chat for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick Chat if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose MiniMax-M2 Instruct if
- You prefer MiniMax's tooling or already use it.
FAQ
Is Llama 4 Maverick Chat better than MiniMax-M2 Instruct?
On the index average, Llama 4 Maverick Chat leads MiniMax-M2 Instruct by 0.3 points (79.7 versus 79.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Llama 4 Maverick Chat wins 7 benchmarks, MiniMax-M2 Instruct wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick Chat or MiniMax-M2 Instruct?
Llama 4 Maverick Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $9.62 per million tokens, versus $10.09 for MiniMax-M2 Instruct.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 128,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Llama 4 Maverick Chat is open weights; MiniMax-M2 Instruct is open weights.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Llama 4 Maverick Chat for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.