MiniMax M2.5 API Pricing
MiniMax · context window 205K · prices updated 2026-09-29
Where MiniMax M2.5 sits on price
At $1.08 per million output tokens, MiniMax M2.5 is a mid tier model — 2.0× cheaper than the median output price of $2.20, which puts it cheaper than 67% and pricier than 33% of the models we track. It sits 2th cheapest of the 8 MiniMax models we track. Output costs 4.0× input, the usual spread — trim both, starting with the answer length.
Cached input is 90% cheaper. On an input-heavy workload you need roughly a 28% cache-hit rate to take 25% off the input line — reachable for chatbots and agents that resend the same system prompt and history.
What real workloads cost on MiniMax M2.5
These three workloads are the ones teams actually run on a mid-priced model — a $1.08/1M model is not bought for the same job as one ten times the price.
| Workload | Per request | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win. | $0.0029 | $42.93 |
| Document pipeline — 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) Batch-friendly: no user waiting, so a ~50% batch discount usually applies. | $0.0014 | $405 |
| Small app — 1K requests/day (500 in / 150 out) The baseline most side projects actually run at. | $0.0003 | $8.91 |
Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads MiniMax M2.5 with caching and batch options.
MiniMax M2.5 price history
MiniMax last cut MiniMax M2.5's output price on Sep 12, 2026 (-10% per output token), from $0.3/$1.20 to $0.27/$1.08 per 1M in/out. That is one of 5 repricings in the 58 days we have tracked it — worth knowing before you hard-code today's rate into a budget.
| Date | Input /1M | Output /1M | Output change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2, 2026 (tracking began) | $0.15 | $0.9 | — |
| Aug 6, 2026 | $0.22 | $0.9 | 0% |
| Aug 21, 2026 | $0.27 | $0.95 | +6% |
| Aug 22, 2026 | $0.27 | $1.08 | +14% |
| Sep 10, 2026 | $0.3 | $1.20 | +11% |
| Sep 12, 2026 | $0.27 | $1.08 | -10% |
Change-points from our daily price snapshots (tracking since Aug 2, 2026; intraday moves between snapshots are not captured).
MiniMax M2.5 vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
The closest-priced alternative from another vendor is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct (Alibaba (Qwen)) — priced within a rounding error on output, with $0.17 less per million input tokens. When two models land this close on price, the decision is quality on your own workload, not the price sheet: run 50 real requests through both and compare.
See Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct pricing →Cheaper alternatives
More MiniMax models
Frequently asked questions
› How much does the MiniMax M2.5 API cost?
MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.08 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.027 per million (90% cheaper). That works out to roughly 925,926 output tokens per dollar.
› What does the support chatbot workload cost on MiniMax M2.5?
Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) costs about $0.0029 per request and $42.93 per month on MiniMax M2.5. Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win.
› What does it cost to fill MiniMax M2.5's 205K context window?
Sending 205K of input in a single request costs $0.0553 at $0.27 per million tokens — before any output. With prompt caching that same fill drops to about $0.0055 on repeat requests. This is why large context windows are cheap to advertise and expensive to actually use.
› Is MiniMax M2.5 worth the price?
MiniMax M2.5 sits in the middle of the market (2 of 8 by price within MiniMax). The honest test is a routing experiment: send the same 200 real requests to this model and to a tier below, and compare failure rate against the price gap — most teams find a majority of traffic never needed the pricier model.