MiniMax's new cheap AI model takes on OpenAI, Anthropic
14 Feb 2026

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm, MiniMax, has launched a new model called M2.5. The company claims the model is "designed for real-world productivity."

The launch comes amid a flurry of activity in China's AI sector and rising investor interest in smaller Chinese AI companies.

Global investors are keen to tap into China's rapid advancements in AI beyond traditional tech giants.

MiniMax claims M2.5 outperforms other leading models
Competitive edge

MiniMax has claimed that its latest model, M2.5, is the most powerful one yet.

The company says its performance matches that of leading models from US giants Anthropic and OpenAI in key areas like coding and search.

The announcement was well-received by the markets on Friday, with MiniMax's shares in Hong Kong closing 15.7% higher at HK$680.

Speed and cost efficiency
Affordability factor

One of the key features of the new model is its speed and cost efficiency. MiniMax has kept the model size at a whopping 230 billion parameters, same as previous M2 models.

"M2.5 is the first frontier model where users do not need to worry about cost, delivering on the promise of intelligence too cheap to meter," said MiniMax in a statement.

Model can run continuously for an hour at just $1
Operational cost

MiniMax has also revealed that the new model can be run continuously for an hour at a rate of 100 tokens a second for only $1.

Tokens are small chunks of data read or generated by a model.

This makes M2.5 an affordable option for businesses looking to leverage AI technology without breaking the bank.