MiniMax-M3 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Qwen3.7 Plus
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.7 Plus 70, MiniMax-M3 69, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MiniMaxMiniMax-M3
69/100- ECI147.0
- Price$0.30 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash
69/100- ECI154.5
- Price$1.50 / $9.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.7 Plus
70/100- ECI147.4
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 3.5 Flash for raw capability and MiniMax-M3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 · Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 · MiniMax-M3 147.0
- Lowest priceMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M3 $0.525 · Qwen3.7 Plus $0.70 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMiniMax-M3 and Gemini 3.5 FlashMiniMax-M3 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.7 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashMiniMax-M3: Text, Images, Video · Gemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.7 Plus: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingMiniMax-M3Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | MiniMax-M3 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Qwen3.7 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 74 | 84 | 75 |
| Price | 25% | 63 | 25 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 69/100 | 70/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | MiniMax-M3MiniMax | Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle | Qwen3.7 PlusAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 147.0 | 154.5 (best) | 147.4 |
| ECI rank | #62 of 148 | #33 of 148 (best) | #61 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 90.9% | 92.8% (best) | 87.9% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 62.8% (best) | 34.4% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 71.1% | 95.6% (best) | 93.3% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 79.3% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 66.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $1.50 | $0.40 |
| Output | $1.20 (best) | $9.00 | $1.60 |
| Cached input | $0.06 | $0.15 | $0.04 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.525 (best) | $3.38 | $0.70 |
| Long-context rate | Over 512K: $0.60 / $2.40 | Same rate | Over 256K: $1.20 / $4.80 |
| Price source | Official MiniMax (minimax.io) API | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 512,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | MiniMax-M3 | gemini-3.5-flash | qwen3.7-plus |
| API providers | 42 (best) | 32 | 25 |
| Released | Jun 1, 2026 | May 19, 2026 | Jun 2, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- MiniMax-M3$5.40
- Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
- Qwen3.7 Plus$7.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: MiniMax-M3, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Qwen3.7 Plus?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 3.5 Flash for raw capability and MiniMax-M3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Qwen3.7 Plus?
MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.7 Plus costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M3 versus $0.70 for Qwen3.7 Plus (1.3× as much) and $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (6.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148), Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 (#61 of 148) and MiniMax-M3 147.0 (#62 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (152.5–156.6 vs 145.7–148.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, MiniMax-M3 90.9%, Qwen3.7 Plus 87.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%, Qwen3.7 Plus 93.3%, MiniMax-M3 71.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M3 and Qwen3.7 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.5 Flash leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax-M3 and Gemini 3.5 Flash have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.7 Plus. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M3 up to 512,000, Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3.7 Plus up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
MiniMax-M3 accepts text, images and video; Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.7 Plus accepts text, images and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniMax-M3 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash and Qwen3.7 Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.7 Plus is the newest, released Jun 2, 2026. MiniMax-M3 came out Jun 1, 2026; Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 2025, Qwen3.7 Plus Apr 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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