Skip to main content
AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs MiniMax M2.5

DeepSeek against MiniMax, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Balanced · Open weights

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M2.5

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationDeepSeek V4.1 FlashMiniMax M2.5
ProviderDeepSeekMiniMax
TierBalancedBalanced
Context windowWinner: 1M205K
Max output384KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.30$0.30
Output / 1M tokens$1.20$1.20
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters552B MoE (causal encoder-decoder; 8B active for input, 16B for output)open MoE
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext
LicenseMITNot disclosedUnverified
API model iddeepseek-flashNot publishedUnverified
ReleasedSeptember 10, 2026February 12, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] (2026-09-26)39.5Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified22.8
DeepSWE 1.1 [max] (2026-09-10)74.2Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 [max] (2026-09-10)90.6Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond [max] (2026-09-10)90.9Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis (AA-estimated)

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

  • 2026-09-10
    DeepSeek V4.1-Flash release notes (vendor)

    Agentic software engineering: pass@1 on real repo tasks with reported cost per completed task.

    Directly comparable

Pricing tiers

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Official peak rates $0.30/$1.20 per MTok; off-peak $0.15/$0.60 (50% of peak). Cache hit $0.006 peak / $0.003 off-peak. Peak hours are weekdays 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Open weights (MIT). The legacy deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp ids temporarily route here.

MiniMax M2.5: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API (cache read $0.03). MiniMax lists M2.5 as a legacy model. Open weights (community license).

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is DeepSeek's new default — an open-weight (MIT) multimodal MoE that DeepSeek says beats V4-Pro on performance, cost and speed.

Best for

  • Open-weight price-performance
  • High-volume hosted agents
  • Self-hosting with MIT weights

Watch out

Vendor benchmark claims are far ahead of its independent Artificial Analysis score (39.5 on v4.3.2); peak/off-peak billing means the hour you run matters.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5 is a legacy open-weight MiniMax MoE with a 204,800-token context.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal

Watch out

Legacy: MiniMax's current models are M3 (1M context, multimodal) and M2.7 at the same $0.30/$1.20 price.

When the cheaper one wins

Both charge $1.20 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not the split. Prefer the row whose “best for” line matches the job, then confirm the live vendor rate.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · MiniMax M2.5

Common questions

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs MiniMax M2.5

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or MiniMax M2.5 cheaper for input?
Both cost $0.30 per million input tokens at standard rates, so input price is not a deciding factor between them.
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or MiniMax M2.5 cheaper for output?
Both cost $1.20 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not a deciding factor between them.
Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or MiniMax M2.5?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash accepts 1M tokens against 205K for MiniMax M2.5. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and MiniMax M2.5 support the same reasoning levels?
Yes — both accept the same effort settings: "low", "high", "max". Higher effort costs more and takes longer, so start low and raise it only where output quality actually improves.
Should I use DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or MiniMax M2.5?
Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash suits open-weight price-performance; MiniMax M2.5 suits open-weight deployments.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Context: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash takes 1M against 205K for MiniMax M2.5 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Run the model pickerEstimate stack costAll model comparisons

Choosing a harness rather than a model — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf, or Lovable? Compare agentic harnesses · Latest releases.