MiniMax Models in OpenClaw: Setup, Auth, and Capabilities

The bundled minimax plugin registers two providers plus five capabilities: chat, image generation, music generation, video generation, image understanding, speech (T2A v2), and web search.

Tip

Referral link for MiniMax Coding Plan (10% off): MiniMax Coding Plan

Built-in catalog

Model refs follow the auth path: minimax/<model> for API-key setups, minimax-portal/<model> for OAuth setups.

Getting started

OAuth (Coding Plan)

Best for: quick setup with MiniMax Coding Plan via OAuth, no API key required.

International

Run onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice minimax-global-oauth

Resulting provider base URL: api.minimax.io.

Verify the model is available

openclaw models list --provider minimax-portal

China

Run onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice minimax-cn-oauth

Resulting provider base URL: api.minimaxi.com.

Verify the model is available

openclaw models list --provider minimax-portal

Note

OAuth setups use the minimax-portal provider id. Model refs follow the form minimax-portal/MiniMax-M3.

API key

Best for: hosted MiniMax with Anthropic-compatible API.

International

Run onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice minimax-global-api

This configures api.minimax.io as the base URL.

Verify the model is available

openclaw models list --provider minimax

China

Run onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice minimax-cn-api

This configures api.minimaxi.com as the base URL.

Verify the model is available

openclaw models list --provider minimax

Config example

{
  env: { MINIMAX_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "minimax/MiniMax-M3" } } },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      minimax: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.minimax.io/anthropic",
        apiKey: "${MINIMAX_API_KEY}",
        api: "anthropic-messages",
        models: [
          {
            id: "MiniMax-M3",
            name: "MiniMax M3",
            reasoning: true,
            input: ["text", "image"],
            cost: { input: 0.6, output: 2.4, cacheRead: 0.12, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 1000000,
            maxTokens: 131072,
          },
          {
            id: "MiniMax-M2.7",
            name: "MiniMax M2.7",
            reasoning: true,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0.3, output: 1.2, cacheRead: 0.06, cacheWrite: 0.375 },
            contextWindow: 204800,
            maxTokens: 131072,
          },
          {
            id: "MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed",
            name: "MiniMax M2.7 Highspeed",
            reasoning: true,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0.6, output: 2.4, cacheRead: 0.06, cacheWrite: 0.375 },
            contextWindow: 204800,
            maxTokens: 131072,
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
}

Warning

MiniMax-M2.x's Anthropic-compatible streaming endpoint emits reasoning_content in OpenAI-style delta chunks instead of native Anthropic thinking blocks, which leaks internal reasoning into visible output if thinking is left enabled implicitly. OpenClaw disables M2.x thinking by default unless you explicitly set thinking yourself. MiniMax-M3 (and forward-compatible M3.x) is exempt: M3 emits proper Anthropic thinking blocks and requires thinking active to produce visible content, so OpenClaw keeps M3 on the provider's adaptive thinking path. See the Thinking defaults section under Advanced configuration below.

Note

API-key setups use the minimax provider id. Model refs follow the form minimax/MiniMax-M3.

Configure via openclaw configure

Launch the wizard

openclaw configure

Select Model/auth

Choose Model/auth from the menu.

Choose a MiniMax auth option

Pick your default model

Select your default model when prompted.

Capabilities

Image generation

The MiniMax plugin registers the image-01 model for the image_generate tool on both minimax and minimax-portal, reusing the same MINIMAX_API_KEY or OAuth auth as the text models.

• Text-to-image generation and image-to-image editing (subject reference), both with aspect ratio control
• Up to 9 output images per request, 1 reference image per edit request
• Supported aspect ratios: 1:1, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 9:16, 21:9

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      imageGenerationModel: { primary: "minimax/image-01" },
    },
  },
}

Image generation always uses MiniMax's dedicated image endpoint (/v1/image_generation) and ignores models.providers.minimax.baseUrl, since that field configures the chat/Anthropic-compatible base URL instead. Set MINIMAX_API_HOST=https://api.minimaxi.com to route image generation through the CN endpoint; the default global endpoint is https://api.minimax.io.

Note

See Image Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Text-to-speech

The bundled minimax plugin registers MiniMax T2A v2 as a speech provider for tts.

• Default TTS model: speech-2.8-hd
• Default voice: English_expressive_narrator
• Bundled model ids: speech-2.8-hd, speech-2.8-turbo, speech-2.6-hd, speech-2.6-turbo, speech-02-hd, speech-02-turbo, speech-01-hd, speech-01-turbo
• Auth resolution order: tts.providers.minimax.apiKey, then minimax-portal OAuth/token auth profiles, then Token Plan environment keys (MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN, MINIMAX_CODE_PLAN_KEY, MINIMAX_CODING_API_KEY), then MINIMAX_API_KEY
• If no TTS host is configured, OpenClaw reuses the configured minimax-portal OAuth host and strips Anthropic-compatible path suffixes such as /anthropic
• Normal audio attachments stay MP3. Voice-note targets (Feishu, Telegram, and other channels that request a voice-note-compatible attachment) are transcoded from MiniMax MP3 to 48kHz Opus with ffmpeg, because e.g. the Feishu/Lark file API only accepts file_type: "opus" for native audio messages
• MiniMax T2A accepts fractional speed and vol, but pitch is sent as an integer; OpenClaw truncates fractional pitch values before the API request

Music generation

The bundled MiniMax plugin registers music generation through the shared music_generate tool for both minimax and minimax-portal.

• Default music model: minimax/music-2.6 (OAuth: minimax-portal/music-2.6)
• Also supports music-2.6-free, music-cover, and music-cover-free
• Prompt controls: lyrics, instrumental
• Output format: mp3
• Session-backed runs detach through the shared task/status flow, including action: "status"

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      musicGenerationModel: { primary: "minimax/music-2.6" },
    },
  },
}

Note

See Music Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Video generation

The bundled MiniMax plugin registers video generation through the shared video_generate tool for both minimax and minimax-portal.

• Default video model: minimax/MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3 (OAuth: minimax-portal/MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3)
• Also supports MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3-Fast, MiniMax-Hailuo-02, I2V-01-Director, I2V-01-live, and I2V-01
• Modes: text-to-video and single-image reference flows
• Supports resolution (768P or 1080P on Hailuo 2.3/02 models); aspectRatio is not supported and is ignored

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      videoGenerationModel: { primary: "minimax/MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3" },
    },
  },
}

Note

See Video Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Image understanding

The MiniMax plugin registers image understanding separately from the text catalog:

That is why automatic media routing can use MiniMax image understanding even when the bundled text-provider catalog also includes M3 image-capable chat refs. PDF understanding uses MiniMax-M2.7 for text extraction only; MiniMax does not register a PDF-to-image conversion path.

Web search

The MiniMax plugin also registers web_search through the MiniMax Token Plan search API (/v1/coding_plan/search).

• Provider id: minimax
• Structured results: titles, URLs, snippets, related queries
• Preferred env var: MINIMAX_CODE_PLAN_KEY
• Accepted env aliases: MINIMAX_CODING_API_KEY, MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN
• Compatibility fallback: MINIMAX_API_KEY when it already points at a token-plan credential
• Region reuse: plugins.entries.minimax.config.webSearch.region, then MINIMAX_API_HOST, then MiniMax provider base URLs
• Search stays on provider id minimax; OAuth CN/global setup can steer region indirectly through models.providers.minimax-portal.baseUrl and can provide bearer auth through MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN

Config lives under plugins.entries.minimax.config.webSearch.*.

Note

See MiniMax Search for full web search configuration and usage.

Advanced configuration

Configuration options

Thinking defaults

On api: "anthropic-messages", OpenClaw injects thinking: { type: "disabled" } for MiniMax M2.x models unless an earlier wrapper already set the thinking field in the payload. This prevents M2.x's streaming endpoint from emitting reasoning_content in OpenAI-style delta chunks, which would leak internal reasoning into visible output.

MiniMax-M3 (and M3.x) is exempt: M3 returns an empty content array with stop_reason: "end_turn" when thinking is disabled, so OpenClaw removes the implicit disabled default for M3 and, when a thinking level is set, forces thinking: { type: "adaptive" } instead.

Available thinking levels per model family:

Fast mode

/fast on or params.fastMode: true rewrites MiniMax-M2.7 to MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed on the Anthropic-compatible stream path (api: "anthropic-messages", provider minimax or minimax-portal).

Fallback example

Best for: keep your strongest latest-generation model as primary, fail over to MiniMax M2.7. Example below uses Opus as a concrete primary; swap to your preferred latest-gen primary model.

{
  env: { MINIMAX_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": { alias: "primary" },
        "minimax/MiniMax-M2.7": { alias: "minimax" },
      },
      model: {
        primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
        fallbacks: ["minimax/MiniMax-M2.7"],
      },
    },
  },
}

Coding Plan usage details

• Coding Plan usage API: https://api.minimaxi.com/v1/token_plan/remains or https://api.minimax.io/v1/token_plan/remains (requires a coding plan key).
• Usage polling derives the host from models.providers.minimax-portal.baseUrl or models.providers.minimax.baseUrl when configured, so global setups using https://api.minimax.io/anthropic poll api.minimax.io. Missing or malformed base URLs keep the CN fallback for compatibility.
• OpenClaw normalizes MiniMax coding-plan usage to the same % left display used by other providers. MiniMax's raw usage_percent / usagePercent fields are remaining quota, not consumed quota, so OpenClaw inverts them. Count-based fields win when present.
• When the API returns model_remains, OpenClaw prefers the chat-model entry, derives the window label from start_time / end_time when needed, and includes the selected model name in the plan label so coding-plan windows are easier to distinguish.
• Usage snapshots treat minimax, minimax-cn, minimax-portal, and minimax-portal-cn as the same MiniMax quota surface, and prefer stored MiniMax OAuth before falling back to Coding Plan key env vars.

Notes

• Default chat model: MiniMax-M3. Alternate chat models: MiniMax-M2.7, MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed
• Onboarding and direct API-key setup write model definitions for M3 and both M2.7 variants
• Image understanding uses the plugin-owned MiniMax-VL-01 media provider
• Update pricing values in models.json if you need exact cost tracking
• Use openclaw models list to confirm the current provider id, then switch with openclaw models set minimax/MiniMax-M3 or openclaw models set minimax-portal/MiniMax-M3

Note

See Model providers for provider rules.

Troubleshooting

Unknown model: minimax/MiniMax-M3

This usually means the MiniMax provider is not configured (no matching provider entry and no MiniMax auth profile/env key found). Fix by:

• Running openclaw configure and selecting a MiniMax auth option, or
• Adding the matching models.providers.minimax or models.providers.minimax-portal block manually, or
• Setting MINIMAX_API_KEY, MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN, or a MiniMax auth profile so the matching provider can be injected.

Make sure the model id is case-sensitive:

• API-key path: minimax/MiniMax-M3, minimax/MiniMax-M2.7, or minimax/MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed
• OAuth path: minimax-portal/MiniMax-M3, minimax-portal/MiniMax-M2.7, or minimax-portal/MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed

Then recheck with:

openclaw models list

Note

More help: Troubleshooting and FAQ.

Related

• Model selection, Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

• Image generation, Shared image tool parameters and provider selection.

• Music generation, Shared music tool parameters and provider selection.

• Video generation, Shared video tool parameters and provider selection.

• MiniMax Search, Web search configuration via MiniMax Token Plan.

• Troubleshooting, General troubleshooting and FAQ.