MiniMax M2.5 vs Ministral 3 8B (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 36. 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 multimodal & grounded, where it averages 62 against 33.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 73 to 30.

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 8B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Ministral 3 8B (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 8B (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 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

51
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
62
BrowseComp
41
50
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

38.7

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

65
HumanEval
24
45
SWE-bench Verified
17
35
LiveCodeBench
16
41
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

62

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

57
MMMU-Pro
28
68
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

69.6

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

70
SimpleQA
32
68
MuSR
33
83
BBH
70
66
LongBench v2
44
69
MRCRv2
47

Knowledge

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

55.3

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

73
MMLU
30
72
GPQA
29
70
SuperGPQA
27
68
OpenBookQA
25
73
MMLU-Pro
54
10
HLE
5
66
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

85

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

70

85
IFEval
70

Multilingual

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

82.1

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

84
MGSM
63
81
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5

76.1

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

47.8

73
AIME 2023
33
75
AIME 2024
35
74
AIME 2025
34
69
HMMT Feb 2023
29
71
HMMT Feb 2024
31
70
HMMT Feb 2025
30
72
BRUMO 2025
32
81
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 is ahead overall, 59 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 73 and 30.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, MiniMax M2.5 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 55.3 versus 30. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 38.7 versus 15.2. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 76.1 versus 47.8. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 69.6 versus 42.1. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 53.4 versus 38.5. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 62 versus 33.4. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 85 versus 70. 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 8B (Reasoning)?

MiniMax M2.5 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 61.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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