MiniMax M2.5 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
At a Glance
| Compare |  MiniMax M2.5MiniMax |  DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | UnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort | #5 of 44$0.022 per LiveBench case |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.27Openrouter ↗ · Aug 28, 2026 | $0.15DeepSeek ↗ · Sep 10, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $1.08Openrouter ↗ · Aug 28, 2026 | $0.60Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 197K | 1,049K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 10, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | MiniMax-M2.5 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | MiniMax | DeepSeek |
| Family | Minimax M2 5 | Deepseek V4 1 |
| Model | MiniMax-M2.5 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash |
| Version | MiniMax-M2.5 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-02-12 | 2026-09-10 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 197K | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | 228.7B | 763.2B |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | other | mit |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) | DeepSeek (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, tools | agents, chat, fim, generation, reasoning, responses, structured_outputs, tools, vision |
| Architecture design | Unknown | Causal Encoder-Decoder (20 encoder + 20 decoder layers) |
| Backbone parameters | Unknown | 552000000000 parameters |
| Active parameters during decode | Unknown | 16000000000 parameters |
| Active parameters during prefill | Unknown | 8000000000 parameters |
| Pre-training corpus | Unknown | 45000000000000 tokens |
| Reasoning effort range | Unknown | 1–100 |
| Routed experts per MoE layer | Unknown | 384 experts |
| Routed experts per token | Unknown | 6 experts |
| Transformer layers | Unknown | 40 layers |
MiniMax M2.5 Capabilities
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All text comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | DeepSeek-V4-FlashDeepSeek | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | MiniMax-M3MiniMax | family variantstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
MiniMax M2.5 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash FAQs
Is MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both MiniMax M2.5 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
MiniMax M2.5 is $0.27 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is $0.15 per million tokens, so DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper on this metric. MiniMax M2.5 is $1.08 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is $0.60 per million tokens, so DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has the larger sourced context window. MiniMax M2.5 supports 197K and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash supports 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. MiniMax M2.5 is open weight; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is open weight.
Can MiniMax M2.5 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash understand images?+
MiniMax M2.5 is not documented with image input; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. MiniMax M2.5 is — and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 393K.
Do MiniMax M2.5 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash support reasoning and tool use?+
MiniMax M2.5: tool calling. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
MiniMax M2.5 has 2 sourced provider routes; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has 3, so DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, MiniMax M2.5 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.