MiniMax-M2 vs Sonar Pro Max: which model should you choose?
We compared MiniMax-M2 and Sonar Pro Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Sonar Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; MiniMax-M2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
MiniMax-M2
MiniMax-M2 is a multimodal model from MiniMax. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $5.19 per million input tokens and $22.73 per million output tokens, and averages 80.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.19 / 1M
- Output
- $22.73 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 80.6
- Open weights
- Yes
Sonar Pro Max
Sonar Pro Max is a multimodal model from Perplexity. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $14.01 per million input tokens and $69.33 per million output tokens, and averages 81.1 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.01 / 1M
- Output
- $69.33 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 81.1
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | MiniMax-M2 | Sonar Pro Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.19 | $14.01 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $22.73 | $69.33 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 128,000 | A |
| Max output | 65,536 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 80.6 | 81.1 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1423.8 | 1437.8 | B |
| Open weights | Yes | No | A |
Benchmark comparison
MiniMax-M2 wins 5, Sonar Pro Max wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Sonar Pro Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 81.8 | 83.7 | 1.9 | Sonar Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 75.4 | 78.8 | 3.4 | Sonar Pro Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.9 | 71.7 | 1.8 | Sonar Pro Max |
| HumanEval | 88.0 | 85.1 | 2.9 | MiniMax-M2 |
| MATH-500 | 82.3 | 86.2 | 3.9 | Sonar Pro Max |
| AIME 2025 | 78.1 | 74.9 | 3.2 | MiniMax-M2 |
| LiveCodeBench | 73.4 | 75.7 | 2.3 | Sonar Pro Max |
| IFEval | 86.1 | 88.3 | 2.2 | Sonar Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 83.5 | 82.0 | 1.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
| HellaSwag | 90.4 | 88.0 | 2.4 | MiniMax-M2 |
| MMMU | 78.0 | 77.2 | 0.8 | MiniMax-M2 |
| Arena Elo | 1423.8 | 1437.8 | 14.0 | Sonar Pro Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, MiniMax-M2 costs about $9.57 per million tokens and Sonar Pro Max costs about $27.84. MiniMax-M2 is roughly 66% cheaper than Sonar Pro Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
MiniMax-M2 has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for Sonar Pro Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, MiniMax-M2 wins 5, Sonar Pro Max wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Sonar Pro Max leads MiniMax-M2 by 0.5 points (81.1 versus 80.6).
The price picture favours MiniMax-M2. The context picture favours MiniMax-M2. 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 Sonar Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and MiniMax-M2 for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose MiniMax-M2 if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 200,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning.
Choose Sonar Pro Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
FAQ
Is MiniMax-M2 better than Sonar Pro Max?
On the index average, Sonar Pro Max leads MiniMax-M2 by 0.5 points (81.1 versus 80.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. MiniMax-M2 wins 5 benchmarks, Sonar Pro Max wins 7.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2 or Sonar Pro Max?
MiniMax-M2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $9.57 per million tokens, versus $27.84 for Sonar Pro Max.
Which has the larger context window?
MiniMax-M2 has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens. Sonar Pro Max has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
MiniMax-M2 is open weights; Sonar Pro Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Sonar Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and MiniMax-M2 for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.