China-based AI startup MiniMax has launched its open-source large language model, MiniMax M2, built specifically for agent workflows and coding tasks. The model is said to deliver twice the inference speed of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 at just 8% of its API cost, and it is currently free to use for a limited time.
MiniMax said M2 provides strong performance in code generation and tool use across platforms such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Cline. The company has released the model weights on Hugging Face with deployment support for vLLM and SGLang, and offers its own M2-powered agent platform with “Lightning” and “Pro” modes for general and advanced automation. [TechNode reporting]
Related
