MiniMax: MiniMax M2.5 (free) alternatives
Ranked by capability overlap, similar context window, and similar price tier. Cross-vendor options are weighted higher than same-provider alternatives.
See also: MiniMax: MiniMax M2.5 (free) model details · MiniMax family · Minimax provider page
Top 15 alternatives
| # | Model | Provider | Why | Context | Input price / 1M | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 0324 | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.20 Budget | vs → |
| 2 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.21 Budget | vs → |
| 3 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (exacto) | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.21 Budget | vs → |
| 4 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.26 Budget | vs → |
| 5 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.27 Budget | vs → |
| 6 | DeepSeek: R1 0528 | DeepSeek | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 164K Long context (128K+) | $0.45 Budget | vs → |
| 7 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-120b | OpenAI | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.04 Budget | vs → |
| 8 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-20b | OpenAI | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.03 Budget | vs → |
| 9 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-120b (exacto) | OpenAI | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.04 Budget | vs → |
| 10 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b | OpenAI | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.07 Budget | vs → |
| 11 | Qwen: Qwen3 235B A22B | Qwen | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.46 Budget | vs → |
| 12 | Qwen: Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Qwen | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.15 Budget | vs → |
| 13 | Qwen: Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507 | Qwen | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.08 Budget | vs → |
| 14 | Qwen: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.10 Budget | vs → |
| 15 | Qwen: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking | Qwen | shares reasoning, tool-use, structured-output · similar price tier | 131K Long context (128K+) | $0.26 Budget | vs → |