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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M3 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash

Too close to call on our weighted score (MiniMax-M3 69, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M3

    Released Jun 1, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI147.0
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M3

  2. Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash

    Released May 19, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI154.5
    • Price$1.50 / $9.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (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 · MiniMax-M3 147.0
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M3 $0.525 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMiniMax-M3 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashMiniMax-M3: Text, Images, Video · Gemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingMiniMax-M3Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMiniMax-M3Gemini 3.5 Flash
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7484
Price25%6325
Inputs & features15%70100
Context window10%6161
Overall100%69/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

MiniMax-M3 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M3MiniMaxGemini 3.5 FlashGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.0154.5 (best)
ECI rank#62 of 148#33 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.9%92.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—62.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics71.1%95.6% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—79.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—66.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$1.50
Output$1.20 (best)$9.00
Cached input$0.06 (best)$0.15
Blended (3:1)$0.525 (best)$3.38
Long-context rateOver 512K: $0.60 / $2.40Same rate
Price sourceOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max output512,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoYes
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDMiniMax-M3gemini-3.5-flash
API providers42 (best)32
ReleasedJun 1, 2026May 19, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025
03 — Cost

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
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M3 or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (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 or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) 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 $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) and MiniMax-M3 147.0 (#62 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (152.5–156.6 vs 142.7–149.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, MiniMax-M3 90.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%, MiniMax-M3 71.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M3 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. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 and Gemini 3.5 Flash share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M3 up to 512,000, Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536 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. 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 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

MiniMax-M3 is the newest, released Jun 1, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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