MiniMax vs Z Code: Side-by-Side Comparison 2026

MiniMax vs Z Code comparison 2026. Side-by-side features, pricing & capabilities.

MiniMax is an AI assistant from MiniMax — ai assistant and model provider with coding capabilities. Z Code is an AI IDE from Z.ai (Zhipu AI) — ai-powered code editor from zhipu ai (z.ai).

MiniMax

MiniMax is a Shanghai-based AI company (Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed) offering the MiniMax Agent app and API access to their M2.5 and M2.1 models. M2.5 scores 80.2% on SWE-Bench Verified at roughly 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus. Models work inside Claude Code, Cline, Cursor, OpenCode, and other coding tools via Anthropic- and OpenAI-compatible API endpoints.

  • ✓ AI chat
  • ✓ Agentic mode
  • ✓ Multi-file editing
  • ✓ Terminal commands
  • ✓ Test generation

Free / $10/mo · 6 plans

Z Code

Desktop code editor from Z.ai (Zhipu AI) powered by GLM models. Integrates multiple AI agents within one interface with codebase understanding, automated code review, and support for external models. Also available as a VS Code extension.

  • ✓ GLM-5 flagship model (77.8% SWE-bench)
  • ✓ 200K token context window
  • ✓ OpenAI-compatible API
  • ✓ Free GLM-4.7-Flash model
  • ✓ Vision capabilities (Pro/Max)

$10/mo · 3 plans

Feature MiniMax Z Code
Category AssistantAI IDE
Starting Price Free $10/mo
Model Family MiniMaxGLM
Open Source Partial (M2.1 open-weight on Hugging Face)Models are open-weight (MIT for GLM-4.6)

Pricing verified Feb 11, 2026. MiniMax pricing | Z Code pricing

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Key Differences

  • Category: MiniMax is an AI assistant; Z Code is an AI IDE.
  • Free tier: MiniMax has a free tier; Z Code does not.
  • Model family: MiniMax uses MiniMax; Z Code uses GLM.
  • Open source: MiniMax: Partial (M2.1 open-weight on Hugging Face). Z Code: Models are open-weight (MIT for GLM-4.6).
  • Bring your own key: Z Code supports BYOK; MiniMax does not.
  • Platforms: MiniMax runs on API, Desktop, Web; Z Code runs on Windows, macOS.
  • Provider: MiniMax is built by MiniMax; Z Code is built by Z.ai (Zhipu AI).

Which Should You Choose?

Choose MiniMax if you want frontier-level coding at 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus or GPT-5. Choose Z Code if you want competitive coding AI starting at $10/mo with free model access. Read our full reviews to see which fits your workflow.

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