Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | MiniMax-M2.1 | Solar Pro 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.3 | $0.3 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $1.2 | $1.2 |
Verdict. Solar Pro 4 takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Solar Pro 4 is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Solar Pro 4 makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. MiniMax-M2.1 is strongest on Intelligence Index (32.1). Solar Pro 4 leads on Coding Index (52.7), Intelligence Index (41.6).
Speed. On throughput, MiniMax-M2.1 generates tokens at 88 tok/s versus 47 tok/s — about 47% faster. On time-to-first-token, MiniMax-M2.1 responds in 1880ms vs 2530ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. MiniMax and Upstage sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: MiniMax tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Upstage often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): MiniMax-M2.1 costs $27.00 ($324/year); Solar Pro 4 costs $27.00 ($324/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): MiniMax-M2.1 ≈ $3.90/run, Solar Pro 4 ≈ $3.90/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): MiniMax-M2.1 ≈ $180/run, Solar Pro 4 ≈ $180/run.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.
Solar Pro 4 wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for MiniMax-M2.1. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
MiniMax-M2.1 generates tokens faster at 88 tok/s vs 47 tok/s. MiniMax-M2.1 also has lower time-to-first-token (1.88s vs 2.53s).
Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, Solar Pro 4 for stronger benchmark performance, and MiniMax-M2.1 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.