GLM 5.2 vs MiniMax M2.7

Z.ai · China  |  MiniMax · China · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick GLM 5.2 for long-horizon agentic coding or project-level software engineering. Pick MiniMax M2.7 for agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on terminal-bench 2, vendor-reported) or independently ranked 14th of 97 on the artificial analysis intelligence index. On a tight budget at scale, MiniMax M2.7 is the value pick.

GLM 5.2 (Z.ai) and MiniMax M2.7 (MiniMax) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. GLM 5.2 is an open-weight reasoning model built for long-horizon coding and multi-step agent workflows — strong and cheap. MiniMax M2.7 is a cheap open-weight agentic coder with near-frontier terminal scores — held back by a non-commercial licence and non-standard benchmarks. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM 5.2MiniMax M2.7
ProviderZ.ai (China) MiniMax (China)
ReleasedJune 13, 2026 March 18, 2026
Context window1M (~1,500 pages) 205K (~307 pages)
Price (in/out)$1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, code text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

Long-horizon agentic coding

GLM 5.2

Its 1M window holds about 4.9× more than MiniMax M2.7's 205K in a single prompt.

Project-level software engineering

GLM 5.2

An open-weight reasoning model built for long-horizon coding and multi-step agent workflows — strong and cheap — and it carries the larger 1M context.

Tool use across long-running tasks

GLM 5.2

An open-weight reasoning model built for long-horizon coding and multi-step agent workflows — strong and cheap — and it is the newer of the two.

Agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on Terminal-Bench 2, vendor-reported)

MiniMax M2.7

At $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens it undercuts GLM 5.2 ($1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.

Independently ranked 14th of 97 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

MiniMax M2.7

A cheap open-weight agentic coder with near-frontier terminal scores — held back by a non-commercial licence and non-standard benchmarks — and it runs cheaper at $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens.

Sparse mixture-of-experts — roughly 230B total but only ~10B active, so it runs on local hardware

MiniMax M2.7

MiniMax M2.7 lists sparse mixture-of-experts — roughly 230B total but only ~10B active, so it runs on local hardware among its strengths; GLM 5.2 does not.

Lowest cost at scale

MiniMax M2.7

At $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.

Largest single-prompt input

GLM 5.2

Its 1M window is about 4.9× larger than MiniMax M2.7's 205K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

MiniMax M2.7

At $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens it undercuts GLM 5.2, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

GLM 5.2

Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.

Anyone whose priority is long-horizon agentic coding

GLM 5.2

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on terminal-bench 2, vendor-reported)

MiniMax M2.7

That is its strongest area.

GLM 5.2: where it fits

An open-weight reasoning model built for long-horizon coding and multi-step agent workflows — strong and cheap. Released June 13, 2026 by Z.ai, it is built for long-horizon agentic coding, project-level software engineering, tool use across long-running tasks, and tops the open-weight intelligence index (SWE-bench Pro 62.1).

Its trade-offs are real: text-only — no native multimodal input, and new release with a limited third-party track record. At $1.4 in / $4.4 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.

MiniMax M2.7: where it fits

A cheap open-weight agentic coder with near-frontier terminal scores — held back by a non-commercial licence and non-standard benchmarks. Released March 18, 2026 by MiniMax, it is built for agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on Terminal-Bench 2, vendor-reported), independently ranked 14th of 97 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, sparse mixture-of-experts — roughly 230B total but only ~10B active, so it runs on local hardware, and served by five separate hosts at uniform pricing, so there is no provider lock-in.

Its trade-offs: open weights but a NON-COMMERCIAL licence — commercial use requires prior written authorisation from MiniMax, and at least one major tracker still mislabels it as MIT, reports SWE-Bench Pro instead of the standard Verified set, which blocks like-for-like comparison, and already superseded internally by M3, and its 205K context is small against 1M-class rivals. At $0.3 in / $1.2 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

The bottom line for this matchup

GLM 5.2 and MiniMax M2.7 overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. MiniMax M2.7 costs less per token; GLM 5.2 holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — GLM 5.2 for long-horizon agentic coding, MiniMax M2.7 for agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on terminal-bench 2, vendor-reported). Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.

Want both GLM 5.2 and MiniMax M2.7 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM 5.2 or MiniMax M2.7 better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, GLM 5.2 leans toward long-horizon agentic coding while MiniMax M2.7 leans toward agentic and terminal coding well above its price tier (57.0 on terminal-bench 2, vendor-reported), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, GLM 5.2 or MiniMax M2.7?

MiniMax M2.7 is cheaper — $1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens vs $0.3/$1.2 per 1M tokens, roughly 4.7× apart on input.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM 5.2 — 1M vs 205K, about 4.9× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both GLM 5.2 and MiniMax M2.7 together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you GLM 5.2, MiniMax M2.7 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, GLM 5.2 or MiniMax M2.7?

GLM 5.2 — released June 13, 2026, about 3 months after MiniMax M2.7.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.