# MiniMax API vs SWE-2 Flash (slim)

> MiniMax scores 55.3 (C) to SWE-2 Flash's 36.4 (F) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-swe-2-flash.md (~6,150 tokens) · this version ~3,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-swe-2-flash.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-swe-2-flash
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-04
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MiniMax API scores 55.3 (C) on agent readiness against SWE-2 Flash's 36.4 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SWE-2 Flash leads on security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do llm inference.

- MiniMax API: C 55.3, rank #783 of 1350 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-api.min.md
- SWE-2 Flash: F 36.4, rank #1243 of 1350 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/swe-2-flash.min.md
- MiniMax API, good for Cheap long-context agent and coding calls through an Anthropic-compatible client, on data you can share with the vendor. Ahead on Reliability, 75 against 50; Schema & documentation, 82 against 29; Agent ergonomics, 59 against 10. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- SWE-2 Flash, good for People already using Devin Desktop or Devin CLI who want a cheaper, faster model for routine coding work such as automations, reviews and small changes, while it is free in November 2026. Ahead on Security & auth, 53 against 30; Maintenance & community, 53 against 45.

| Category | MiniMax API | SWE-2 Flash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 75 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 29 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 59 | 10 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 30 | 53 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 53 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MiniMax API | SWE-2 Flash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | MiniMax | Cognition AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.minimax.io` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | Proprietary API under MiniMax's platform terms. MiniMax-M3 and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash weights are on Hugging Face under the MiniMax community licence | Proprietary model, used through Devin Desktop and Devin CLI under Cognition's Platform Terms of Service. The weights are not public; Cognition says it is building a programme to share them with industry partners and researchers |
| Last release | 2026-10-19 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-06-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-03-09 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 493 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, MiniMax API +53: MiniMax API 82 (OpenAPI 3.1 files for the Anthropic Messages, OpenAI Chat Completions and OpenAI Responses endpoints, each listing MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and MiniMax-M3 (25). llms.txt indexes the docs, and each page is served as Markdown (10). Field descriptions say which model each setting applies to, such as `service_tier` not being supported on M3.1 Flash and `thinking: disabled` returning 400 there, and a compatibility table marks `top_k`, `stop_sequences`, `mcp_servers` and `container` as ignored (15 of 20). Enums for model, `effort`, `service_tier` and thinking type, with required fields marked. The OpenAI-format schema has no `tool_choice` or `response_format` (11 of 15). The Anthropic-format file documents typed errors for 400, 401, 403, 404, 413, 429, 500 and 529 with example bodies, and a page lists 45 error codes with a fix for each (the 19 October note counted 23; 2069, model no longer available, is among them on 4 November), but the OpenAI and Responses files document only 200 (11 of 15). A dated model release page with the 19 October entry as its newest on 4 November, while the API release notes still stop at 28 October 2025 (10 of 15). Total 82.); SWE-2 Flash 29 (Model reading. No model API, so no OpenAPI entry; the Devin v3 OpenAPI file lists SWE-2 agents only, and no model card was found (0). docs.devin.ai serves llms.txt and Markdown copies of every page (10). The launch post says what it is for (automations, code review, feature development, documentation) and the CLI docs say when to pick a SWE model, but the models pages don't list SWE-2 Flash yet (6 of 20). No documented model ID, reasoning settings, context or output limits to type (0 of 15). The CLI pages show `--model` and `/model` examples, with no model-specific errors (3 of 15). Named, dated model versions on Cognition's blog and public release notes, but no release note for SWE-2 Flash yet; the newest is 2 November (10 of 15). 0 + 10 + 6 + 0 + 3 + 10 = 29.)
- Agent ergonomics, MiniMax API +49: MiniMax API 59 (Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tool use on all three formats, with `tool_choice` on the Anthropic format only (17 of 20). No JSON Schema output mode documented on any format (0 of 15). Caching is automatic, with cache reads at a tenth of the input price on M3.1 Flash and a token-count endpoint for sizing a request (15). 1,000,000-token context and up to 524,288 output tokens (15). No batch API found (0). No official SDK. The docs point to the Anthropic and OpenAI SDKs and the AI SDK (0). Typed error bodies with a request id on the Anthropic format and a code table, though `stop_sequences` is ignored without an error (12 of 15). M3.1 Flash can't turn thinking off and defaults to the deepest `effort`, which costs output tokens unless the caller lowers it. Total 59.); SWE-2 Flash 10 (Model reading (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs). Tool use is Devin's harness, not something a caller configures; no context length, output limit or cache price is published for SWE-2 Flash (5 of 25). No documented output-size or reasoning controls for this model; SWE-2's effort levels aren't stated for Flash (0 of 20). No model-level error documentation (0 of 20). No idempotency or retry guidance (0 of 20). One flag or picker selects it and `devin -p` runs a single turn and prints to stdout, but there is no SDK or direct endpoint (5 of 15). 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 10.)
- Reliability, MiniMax API +25: MiniMax API 75 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.minimax.io with Large Language Models, Text-to-Speech and Video Generation components (20). Its history pages, re-read on 4 November, now cover the whole 90 days from 6 August. They list 212 incidents on the LLM component, every one titled 'Elevated errors on Large Language Models (LLM)' and labelled major, and none states a full outage. The longest ran 65 minutes (01:15 to 02:20 UTC on 20 October, 'We are currently investigating this issue' and then resolved), and the rest closed within the hour. This run reads elevated errors with no fuller scope as partial, so minor only, frequent as they are (20). The rate-limits page publishes 200 requests and 10,000,000 tokens a minute for M3.1 Flash and M3 (15). The Anthropic-format OpenAPI file documents 429 for rate limits and 529 as an overload that can be retried, and the error-code page says to retry later on 1002, 2064 and other codes, with no Retry-After header or backoff schedule found (10). No SLA found (0). M3.1 Flash and M3 are generally available (10). Total 75.); SWE-2 Flash 50 (Model reading, for the surface it runs on, Devin Desktop and Devin CLI. Status page at www.devinstatus.com (Atlassian Statuspage) with Desktop Agent and Desktop Tab components besides the cloud ones, read on 4 November 2026 (20). The history feed for the 90 days from 6 August lists 'Devin unavailable' for 20 minutes on 13 August with no component named, read as across the board and a major as on the devin listing; Devin Cloud unavailable on 13 August and the web app down on 24 September name cloud surfaces this model doesn't use; the rest are degraded-performance incidents (new sessions on 3 September, 'multiple services' on 17 September, Ask Devin on 26 October, automation triggers on 4 November) and session queuing on 10 and 11 August, read as minor and a scheduled Devin Desktop extension marketplace upgrade on 7 August, read as maintenance. One major (10). No rate limit figures for the model or the CLI; usage is a daily and weekly quota with no numbers (0). No 429, backoff or retry guidance for this surface (0). Cognition publishes an SLA (25 February 2026) with uptime and response times that applies when included in an order form, read as a contractual SLA on Enterprise, as on other listings (10). The launch post makes it available today with no preview or beta label (10). 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 50.)
- Security & auth, SWE-2 Flash +23: MiniMax API 30 (Model reading (credential, training, retention, operator visibility, programme). One bearer key per account on the pay-as-you-go side and a separate Subscription Key for M Plan, with no scopes found. MiniMax says it may disable keys that leak publicly (20 of 30). The terms, effective 30 March 2026 and unchanged on 4 November, say MiniMax may use input and generated content to provide, maintain, develop and improve its services, and no opt-out was found. The privacy policy says only that personal data isn't used for training to profile or target consumers (0 of 20). Data is kept as long as necessary for its purpose, with no period stated and no zero-retention route (5 of 15). A usage page and balance alerts, no audit log found (5 of 15). No security.txt on platform.minimax.io (404 again on 4 November) or api.minimax.io (per the 19 October check), and no bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). Total 30.); SWE-2 Flash 53 (Read as a hosted model reached through Devin's local clients. The CLI signs in through a browser, or the enterprise identity provider, and stores an API token in credentials.toml that by default is persistent and does not expire and carries the user's access, with no scopes found for it (10 of 30). Devin CLI documents an OS-level sandbox with network filtering, hooks that can block tool calls, and enterprise model allowlists and team settings (14 of 20). Guardrails against prompt injection are Enterprise only and cover user messages, as on the devin listing (8 of 15). Enterprise analytics count tool calls and consumption by model and user; no per-user audit log for the CLI was found (8 of 15). SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022, a disclosure address, no bug bounty and no security.txt, per the devin listing (13 of 20). Training: self-serve customer data may train Cognition's models by default, with an opt-out on paid plans that also turns on zero data retention at model providers. Cognition withheld the weights over cyber misuse, which is recorded as a fact, not scored. 10 + 14 + 8 + 8 + 13 = 53.)
- Maintenance & community, SWE-2 Flash +8: MiniMax API 45 (Model reading. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash shipped on 19 October 2026, dated on the model release page, which has no newer entry on 4 November (16 days, 30). No stated notice policy. The M2.5 and M2.7 families closed to new users on 19 October and retire on 18 November, 30 days later, and from 19 October M Plan and Token Plan requests to them are served by M3.1 Flash under the old names. We couldn't find when that notice was first posted, and the page carries the same notice on 4 November (3 of 12). Churn is high. M2.5 (February 2026) and M2.7 (March 2026) retire within nine months of release, M2.1 and M2 are already retired, and the model list still calls M2.5 and M2.7 retired on 4 November while the notice on the same page gives 18 November (2 of 8). A dated release page, support email addresses on the contact and model pages, a Discord server and GitHub issues on the model repositories. We didn't test whether they answer (10 of 15). No official SDK (0 of 15, 0 of 10). Total 45.); SWE-2 Flash 53 (Model reading. Released 4 November 2026 (30). Churn and notice in place of release counts: SWE-1.6, SWE-1.7, SWE-1.7 Lightning, SWE-2 (10 September) and now SWE-2 Flash in a few months, with no model deprecation notice period found and short names that move to the newest model (10 of 20). Public release notes and a support address, no public tracker (10 of 25). No official SDK for the model (0 of 15). The docs are kept current but don't yet cover this model (3 of 10). 30 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 3 = 53.)