# abab5.5 / abab5.5s

> MiniMax's 2023 production chat models that reached GPT-3.5-level quality and powered its early assistant and companion apps.

- Maker: MiniMax
- Line: abab (legacy)
- Canonical page: https://ai-tldr.dev/models/abab-5-5/
- Updated: 2026-06-18

## In short

abab5.5 / abab5.5s is MiniMax's 2023 production chat models that reached GPT-3.5-level quality and powered its early assistant and companion apps. You can use it through MiniMax.

## Facts

| Fact | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Context window | 16K (abab5.5) / 8K (abab5.5s) (max output Shared with input — 16,384 total tokens (abab5.5), 8,192 total (abab5.5s)) | [1] |
| Licence | Proprietary · API only | [1] |
| Released | 2023 | [2] |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023 (not formally disclosed) | [1] |

## Sources

1. [MiniMax platform (API)](https://platform.minimax.io)
2. [MiniMax (official site)](https://www.minimax.io)

## Overview

abab5.5 and abab5.5s are MiniMax's 2023 production-grade chat models, part of the abab family the Shanghai lab opened to developers through its MiniMax Open Platform (launched April 2023). abab5.5 was the workhorse Chinese-language text model behind MiniMax's early assistant and companion experiences, and contemporaneous user reports placed its writing, chatting, and question-answering quality at roughly the level of OpenAI's GPT-3.5.

abab5.5-chat exposed a combined input-plus-output limit of 16,384 tokens, while abab5.5s-chat was a smaller, lighter variant with an 8,192-token limit aimed at faster, lower-cost interactions. Both were proprietary, API-served models rather than open-weight releases. In the SuperCLUE October 2023 Chinese-LLM leaderboard, MiniMax-Abab5.5 placed around 10th with a total score of 59.57 (48.13 on the open multi-turn track, 76.72 on the objective-question track).

abab5.5 is the model line that powered MiniMax's breakout consumer apps of the period — the Glow chat app and its successors Talkie (international, June 2023) and Xingye / 星野 (China, September 2023). As the earliest abab generation tracked here, it marks the start of MiniMax's publicly documented lineage that later scaled to the 100B+ MoE abab6 (which MiniMax said fixed issues abab5.5 hit in complex scenarios) and the trillion-parameter abab6.5 series. The abab5.5 models have since been retired and no longer appear in MiniMax's current model list; this page preserves them as the foundation of the legacy abab line.

## Benchmarks

- SuperCLUE total (Chinese LLM benchmark, Oct 2023): 59.57% ([source](https://github.com/CLUEbenchmark/SuperCLUE/blob/main/README_2310.md))
- SuperCLUE OPEN (multi-turn open, Oct 2023): 48.13% ([source](https://github.com/CLUEbenchmark/SuperCLUE/blob/main/README_2310.md))
- SuperCLUE OPT (objective questions, Oct 2023): 76.72% ([source](https://github.com/CLUEbenchmark/SuperCLUE/blob/main/README_2310.md))

## Strengths

- Among MiniMax's first publicly available production chat models (2023)
- Reached roughly GPT-3.5-level quality on writing, chat, and Q&A per contemporaneous reports
- Two tiers: abab5.5 (16K) for quality, lighter abab5.5s (8K) for speed and cost
- Powered MiniMax's breakout companion apps Talkie and Xingye
- Top-10 finish among Chinese LLMs on SuperCLUE's October 2023 leaderboard

## Best for

- Conversational assistants and companion-style chat apps (Talkie, Xingye)
- Lightweight, cost-sensitive chat via the smaller abab5.5s
- General Chinese-language text generation and dialogue
- Early API-based application prototyping on the MiniMax Open Platform

## How to access

- [MiniMax](https://platform.minimax.io) — model id `abab5.5-chat`
- [MiniMax](https://platform.minimax.io) — model id `abab5.5s-chat`

## abab (legacy) versions

- [abab6.5 / abab6.5s](https://ai-tldr.dev/models/abab-6-5/) (17 April 2024)
- [abab6](https://ai-tldr.dev/models/abab-6/) (January 2024)
- abab5.5 / abab5.5s (2023) — this page

## FAQ

### What are abab5.5 and abab5.5s?

They are MiniMax's 2023 production chat models in the abab family. abab5.5 is the standard model and abab5.5s is a smaller, lighter variant tuned for faster, lower-cost responses. Both are Chinese-language-focused text chat models served via MiniMax's API.

### What were their token limits?

abab5.5-chat supported a combined input-plus-output limit of 16,384 tokens, while the lighter abab5.5s-chat supported 8,192 tokens. These caps cover input and output together rather than a separate larger context window.

### How good was abab5.5?

Contemporaneous reports put its writing, chat, and question-answering quality at roughly GPT-3.5 level. On the SuperCLUE October 2023 Chinese-LLM leaderboard, MiniMax-Abab5.5 scored 59.57 overall (about 10th place), with 48.13 on the open multi-turn track and 76.72 on objective questions.

### Are the abab5.5 models still available?

No. They were proprietary, API-only models and have since been retired. MiniMax moved on to the MoE abab6 (early 2024) and trillion-parameter abab6.5 (April 2024) lines, and later the MiniMax-01 and open-weight M-series; abab5.5 no longer appears in MiniMax's current model list.

## Links

- [MiniMax (official site)](https://www.minimax.io)
- [MiniMax platform (API)](https://platform.minimax.io)
- [SuperCLUE Oct 2023 leaderboard (MiniMax-Abab5.5 scores)](https://github.com/CLUEbenchmark/SuperCLUE/blob/main/README_2310.md)
- [MiniMax Group — Wikipedia (company & model history)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniMax_Group)
- [Pandaily — China's AI Challenger MiniMax (abab history, apps)](https://pro.pandaily.com/p/chinas-ai-challenger-minimax-open)

Source: AI/TLDR LLM registry, https://ai-tldr.dev/models/abab-5-5/