MiniMax M2.5 vs Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

MiniMax M2.5 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 59 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

MiniMax M2.5's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 76.1 against 40.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 65 to 16.

MiniMax M2.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while MiniMax M2.5 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Quick Verdict

Pick MiniMax M2.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Agentic

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

53.4

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

34

51
Terminal-Bench 2.0
33
62
BrowseComp
37
50
OSWorld-Verified
33

Coding

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

38.7

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

7.2

65
HumanEval
16
45
SWE-bench Verified
9
35
LiveCodeBench
8
41
SWE-bench Pro
6

Multimodal & Grounded

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

62

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

30.4

57
MMMU-Pro
25
68
OfficeQA Pro
37

Reasoning

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

69.6

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

35.3

70
SimpleQA
26
68
MuSR
26
83
BBH
63
66
LongBench v2
37
69
MRCRv2
40

Knowledge

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

55.3

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

25.2

73
MMLU
25
72
GPQA
24
70
SuperGPQA
22
68
OpenBookQA
20
73
MMLU-Pro
49
10
HLE
1
66
FrontierScience
29

Instruction Following

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

85

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

68

85
IFEval
68

Multilingual

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

82.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

59.7

84
MGSM
61
81
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

76.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

40.9

73
AIME 2023
27
75
AIME 2024
29
74
AIME 2025
28
69
HMMT Feb 2023
23
71
HMMT Feb 2024
25
70
HMMT Feb 2025
24
72
BRUMO 2025
26
81
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 is ahead overall, 59 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 65 and 16.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 55.3 versus 25.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 38.7 versus 7.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 76.1 versus 40.9. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 69.6 versus 35.3. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 53.4 versus 34. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 62 versus 30.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 85 versus 68. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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