How much does MiniMax M2.1 cost per million tokens?

MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.3 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens at list price, and $0.03 per million cached input tokens.

What is the context window of MiniMax M2.1?

MiniMax M2.1 accepts up to 204,800 tokens of context and returns up to 131,072 output tokens.

How much do 1,000 chat messages cost with MiniMax M2.1?

About $0.90, assuming 1,000 input + 500 output tokens per message.

Is there a cheaper alternative to MiniMax M2.1?

In the same price range, OpenAI GPT-6 Luna Pro ($0.1 / $0.5), OpenAI GPT-6 Luna ($0.1 / $0.5), Qwen Qwen3.8 Omni Flash ($0.15 / $0.47) cost less per token. Quality differs: test on your own prompts.

Where can I buy MiniMax API credits for less?

Discount credit books resell OpenRouter usage below face value within their depth, OpenRouter adds a 5.5% card fee, and MiniMax sells its own credits at face value. The live table on this page ranks them for $100 of usage.

MiniMax · live price

MiniMax M2.1 API pricing

MiniMax-M2.1 is a lightweight, state-of-the-art large language model optimized for coding, agentic workflows, and modern application development. With only 10 billion activated parameters, it delivers a major jump in real-world...

Small and cheap (under $1 per 1M)Tool callingReasoningRetiring 2026-10-08

Input: $0.3; per 1M tokens
Output: $1.20; per 1M tokens
Cached input: $0.03; per 1M tokens
Context: 205K; 131K max output

List price from OpenRouter, which passes MiniMax's price through without markup. Refreshed hourly. Released December 23, 2025. Model id minimax/minimax-m2.1.

What MiniMax M2.1 costs in practice

At list price, before any batch or caching discount.

1,000 chat messages

$0.90

1,000 input + 500 output tokens each

1,000 RAG questions

$3.00

8,000 input + 500 output tokens each

100 coding-agent steps

$1.14

30,000 input + 2,000 output tokens each, no caching

MiniMax M2.1 price history

No price change since we started tracking on 2026-10-01. We record prices daily; changes will show here.

MiniMax M2.1 price by host

2 hosts serve this model. Prices are the same or higher than list; the cheapest are first.

Novita$0.3 in · $1.20 out · 205K ctx · 99.5% uptime 24h
Minimax$0.3 in · $1.20 out · 205K ctx · 99.0% uptime 24h

Where to buy MiniMax credits for less

MiniMax M2.1 costs the same per token everywhere it's sold through OpenRouter. What changes is the price of the credits. Live quotes for $100 of usage:

#	Where you buy	You payYou pay for $100.00 of usage	vs list price	Price source
1	OrbioCardCheapest right now Credits from a discount book, plus a 5% platform fee and card processing, both included in the quote.	$85.10 incl. $2.60 card processing	-14.9%	live quote
2	smaaartCard Credits from a discount book, plus a 5% platform fee on face value. Card processing and taxes shown at checkout.	$95.00 + card processing and tax at checkout (not in this number)	-5.0%	live quote
3	Direct from the labCard Prepaid credits at face value (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google…). Taxes may apply.	$100.00 no top-up fee	list price	face value
4	OpenRouterCrypto 5% on crypto purchases. No markup on model prices.	$105.00 fees included	+5.0%	published fee
5	OpenRouterCard 5.5% on card purchases, $0.80 minimum. No markup on model prices.	$105.50 fees included	+5.5%	published fee

Disclosure: this site is run by the team behind smaaart, one of the options compared. Tables are ranked by price only, from live quotes and published fees, including when smaaart isn't first. How we compare

MiniMax M2.1 cost calculator

Enter your monthly tokens to price your own usage.

Model$0.3 in / $1.20 out per 1M tokens · list price, liveInput tokens / month (millions)Output tokens / month (millions)

Usage at list price$27.00/ month

Cheaper alternatives to MiniMax M2.1

Other labs' models in the same price range or the one below, cheaper per token.

Model	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Blended 3:1	Context
OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna Pro	$0.1	$0.5	$0.2	1.1M
OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna	$0.1	$0.5	$0.2	1.1M
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Omni Flash	$0.15	$0.47	$0.23	1M
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	$0.03	$0.5	$0.147	1.0M
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash	$0.15	$0.47	$0.23	1M
Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash	$0.15	$0.5	$0.237	1.0M

Other MiniMax models

Model	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Blended 3:1	Context
MiniMax M2-her	$0.3	$1.20	$0.525	66K
MiniMax M2.5	$0.27	$1.08	$0.473	205K
MiniMax M2	$0.3	$1.20	$0.525	205K
MiniMax M2.7	$0.21	$0.84	$0.367	205K
MiniMax M3	$0.3	$1.20	$0.525	1.0M
MiniMax M1	$0.55	$2.20	$0.963	1M

All MiniMax API prices