MiniMax-M2.7 vs ZAYA1-8B

MiniMax-M2.7 30

File safety earns 15, safetensors only with no pickle files, less 10 because every documented loading route passes trust_remote_code for the repository's Python. Provenance earns the full 15, files in the organisation MiniMax links to with a SHA-256 for each shard. Safety evaluation and agent guidance earn nothing, as MiniMax publishes neither. Licence risk earns nothing (read 21 October 2026). The Prohibited Uses appendix goes beyond the law, MiniMax swapped a commercial licence for a non-commercial one two days after release, and neither that swap nor the amendment three days later carries a dated note. The security programme earns nothing, with no security.txt, disclosure policy, SECURITY.md or advisories.

ZAYA1-8B 55

File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository. Provenance 15, the files sit in the Zyphra organisation, which the card ties to zyphra.com's blog post for the model (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 0, the card has no limitations or safety section, and nothing on prompt injection, instruction priority or what the model refuses. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, threshold or change clause. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw on the card, and www.zyphra.com has no security.txt. 25 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 55.

MiniMax-M2.7 60

Memory earns 5. MiniMax only publishes its 230 GB FP8 release, and the smallest build of 4-bit or better from a runtime's own library is LM Studio's Q4_K_M GGUF at 138.3 GB, about 166 GB with the fifth added, so it needs more than our 107.4 GB machine and fits within 256 GB. Runtimes earn the full 25, with model code in released vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp and Transformers, an LM Studio catalogue entry, and Ollama 0.40.14, whose pinned llama.cpp b11963 has the minimax-m2 architecture (capped at 25). Builds earn 10 for one publisher precision, the FP8 release. Terms earn 5, since the licence today allows only personal, research and non-profit use without MiniMax's written authorisation. Download earns 10, with no gate or account. Hosted earns 5, since Novita, Featherless AI and DeepInfra serve it through Hugging Face, while MiniMax's own API is closed to new users and retires it on 18 November 2026.

ZAYA1-8B 80

Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB. Runtimes 10, Released Transformers 5.22.2 has the zaya model and SGLang 0.5.23 has srt/models/zaya.py. Builds 15, Quantised builds from Zyphra at two precisions, FP8 and MXFP4 for the experts, each in its own repository. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata, an OSI licence with nothing added. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for the model and its builds on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps no inference provider to it, and the card names no API. Zyphra's site lists a cloud product for its open models, which wasn't checked for this model. 30 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 80.

MiniMax-M2.7 75

The chat template earns 20 for chat_template.jinja in the repository. The tool-calling format earns 25, as MiniMax's own guide documents how tools go in and how calls come back, gives a parsing function, and its deployment guides name the vLLM and SGLang parsers. Trained tool calling earns 20, with several invoke blocks in one call. Structured output earns nothing, since JSON output isn't documented or claimed. Reasoning control earns nothing, because thinking is always on with no documented way to turn it off or budget it. Context earns 10 for 204,800 tokens in the config with no position scaling.

ZAYA1-8B 60

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters). Tool-calling format 10, only the template and a fork say it. Trained tool calling 10, the template takes tools and renders calls, and the card recommends settings for agent use, but it doesn't say the model was trained for tool calling or for several calls in a turn, so the lower band. Structured output 0, Nothing on the card about JSON or schema-constrained output. Reasoning control 10, the template has an enable_thinking switch, and the card names the qwen3 reasoning parser, which returns the reasoning apart from the answer. Context 10, 131,072 positions in config.json, for an architecture Zyphra trained end to end, so the config is the model's own. 20 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 60.

MiniMax-M2.7 42

The model card earns 2, stating only intended use and leaving out limitations, architecture, parameters, context, natural languages and a cut-off. Training data earns nothing, since only the training process is described. The last change earns 20, a card commit on 26 October 2026 that renames a MiniMax Agent link to MiniMax Code, 9 days before this check; the files, template and code last changed on 20 April 2026. Responsiveness earns 10, with a MiniMax reply in 8 of 36 discussions, none since June. Version policy earns 5, since earlier and later models sit in their own repositories without dated notes. File health earns 5, because a report that it doesn't load in Transformers v5 waits without a reply.

ZAYA1-8B 50

Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card about the training data. Last change 10, the main repository last changed on 26 June 2026 (the checkpoint reshaped for Transformers), 137 days before this check, and the quantised repositories on 2 July, 131 days. Responsiveness 20, Of the 16 most recent discussions that aren't pull requests (7 May to 14 August 2026), 10 have a reply from a Zyphra member, which is most. Version policy 5, the original checkpoint is kept as ZAYA1-8B-legacy and the card says so at the top, without a date. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture after the reshape. 5 + 0 + 10 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 50.