A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller computers that was developed in the mid-1960s.In a 1970 survey, the New York Times suggested a consensus definition of a minicomputer as a machine costing less than US$25,000, with an input-output device such as a teleprinter and at least four thousand words of memory, that is capable of running programs in a higher level language.

A minicomputer is a type of computer that possesses most of the features and capabilities of a large computer but is smaller in physical size. Aminicomputer fills the space between the mainframe and microcomputer, and is smaller than the former but larger than the latter.