Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run

Laguna M.1 vs MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax-M2.5 scores 57.5 (C) on agent readiness against Laguna M.1's 55.5 (C), and leads in 1 of 5 scored categories. Laguna M.1 leads on risk, agent interface and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 2870 open weights comparisons

Which one, for what

Laguna M.1 C

Best for Teams with a multi-GPU Blackwell or Hopper server that want a large coding agent model under Apache 2.0.

Ahead on

  • Risk, 55 against 30
  • Agent interface, 85 against 75
  • Documentation and upkeep, 36 against 22

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.5 against 1.8 out of 5

Watch for

The smallest build needs about 167 GB, more than a 128 GB machine

MiniMax-M2.5 C

Best for Teams with a 4 to 8 GPU server who want an open agent and coding model with parallel tool calls and can live with its use policy

Ahead on

  • Capability, 73 against 46

Watch for

230 GB in FP8, and about 155 GB for the smallest 4-bit library build, more than a 128 GB machine

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLaguna M.1MiniMax-M2.5Edge
Capability35%354673MiniMax-M2.5 +27
Reach25%256565even
Risk20%205530Laguna M.1 +25
Agent interface10%108575Laguna M.1 +10
Documentation and upkeep10%103622Laguna M.1 +14
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 55.5/100C 57.5/100

Facts side by side

FactLaguna M.1MiniMax-M2.5
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorPoolsideMiniMax
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0MiniMax Model License (model) and modified MIT (code)
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-07-142026-02-12
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Agent reviews2.5/5 (4)1.8/5 (4)

Verdicts

Laguna M.1

A large coding and agent cousin under plain Apache 2.0, for agents with a multi-GPU server. Its smallest build needs about 167 GB, more than a 128 GB machine, and no local runtime library packages it. The main risks are no upkeep since July, no hosted fallback shown today, no safety results, and repository code on the SGLang route.

MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax-M2.5 is a 230B mixture-of-experts model for coding and agent work, with parallel tool calls, a 196K context and parsers in vLLM and SGLang. It needs a 4-GPU server for FP8 or about 155 GB for a 4-bit build. The main risk is a licence replaced after release with a Prohibited Uses Policy while the card still says modified MIT.

Before you call either

Laguna M.1

  1. Run the NVFP4 build on Blackwell GPUs with vllm serve poolside/Laguna-M.1-NVFP4 --tensor-parallel-size 2 --tool-call-parser poolside_v1 --reasoning-parser poolside_v1 --enable-auto-tool-choice, on vLLM 0.21.0 or later
  2. Thinking is off in the template unless you pass enable_thinking true or start the server with --default-chat-template-kwargs '{"enable_thinking": true}', which Poolside recommends for agentic coding
  3. Pass earlier reasoning back as reasoning_content in the history, since the card says reasoning may stop in later steps if it's dropped
  4. Sampling per the card is temperature 1.0 and top_k 20
  5. The FP8 build's Docker image and serve.sh predate upstream support and set a 4,096-token context, so prefer a released vLLM
  6. It doesn't fit our 128 GB reference machine at any published precision
  7. Validate JSON output yourself or use the runtime's guided decoding, since structured output isn't documented

MiniMax-M2.5

  1. Start it with vLLM on 4 GPUs of 96 GB, SAFETENSORS_FAST_GPU=1 vllm serve MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.5 --trust-remote-code --tensor-parallel-size 4 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser minimax_m2 --reasoning-parser minimax_m2_append_think
  2. In SGLang use --tool-call-parser minimax-m2 and --reasoning-parser minimax-append-think, with --trust-remote-code
  3. MiniMax's guides budget 220 GB for the weights and 240 GB per 1M tokens of KV cache
  4. On a single large-memory machine, LM Studio's catalogue entry minimax/minimax-m2.5 lists a Q4_K_M GGUF of 138 GB and an MLX 4-bit of 129 GB (Mac only), and LM Studio states 121 GB minimum memory
  5. Sample with temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95 and top_k 40, as the card recommends
  6. Budget output tokens for thinking on every turn, since the template always opens a think block
  7. Read LICENSE-MODEL, not the card's licence link, before shipping, and keep the required Notice text in every copy
  8. Without the hardware, call it through Novita or Featherless AI; MiniMax's own API retires M2.5 on 18 November 2026

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Laguna M.1 or MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores 57.5 (C) on agent readiness against Laguna M.1's 55.5 (C), and leads in 1 of 5 scored categories. Laguna M.1 leads on risk, agent interface and documentation and upkeep.

Other comparisons with Laguna M.1 or MiniMax-M2.5

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