Quick Take

MiniCPM5-1B (Reasoning), released by OpenBMB on May 25, 2026, positions itself as a lightweight, free-to-use model. In contrast, MiniMax-M2.7, released by MiniMax on March 18, 2026, is a high-performance model designed for intensive tasks, reflected in its higher intelligence and coding indices.

Benchmark Read

MiniMax-M2.7 demonstrates a significant lead in core capabilities. It achieves an intelligence index of 49.6 and a coding index of 41.9, compared to MiniCPM5-1B’s 18.2 and 1.5, respectively. In specific benchmarks, MiniMax-M2.7 scores 0.874 on GPQA and 0.47 on SciCode, while MiniCPM5-1B scores 0.278 on GPQA and 0.044 on SciCode. Both models show similar performance in the TAU2 benchmark, with MiniMax-M2.7 at 0.848 and MiniCPM5-1B at 0.810. Notably, both models struggled with TerminalBench Hard, though MiniMax-M2.7 achieved a score of 0.394 against MiniCPM5-1B’s 0.

Cost and Speed

MiniCPM5-1B (Reasoning) is free to use, with input and output costs at $0.00/1M tokens. MiniMax-M2.7 operates on a paid tier, with input costs of $0.30/1M tokens and output costs of $1.20/1M tokens, resulting in a blended cost of $0.53/1M tokens. Regarding performance, MiniMax-M2.7 provides an output speed of 65.382 tok/s and a time to first token of 2.94s. Metrics for speed and latency are currently unknown for MiniCPM5-1B.

Best Fit

MiniMax-M2.7 is best suited for professional applications requiring high accuracy, complex reasoning, and coding assistance. MiniCPM5-1B (Reasoning) is ideal for developers looking for a zero-cost, lightweight model for basic reasoning tasks where budget constraints are the primary factor.