ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M3 vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.7 Plus

Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.7 Plus 70, MiniMax-M3 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. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI150.2
    • Price$0.50 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.7 Plus

    Released Jun 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI147.4
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Plus
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability and MiniMax-M3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 · MiniMax-M3 147.0
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M3 $0.525 · Inkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.7 Plus $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMiniMax-M3 and Inkling SmallMiniMax-M3 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.7 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMiniMax-M3: Text, Images, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.7 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingMiniMax-M3 and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMiniMax-M3Inkling SmallQwen3.7 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%747875
Price25%635857
Inputs & features15%707080
Context window10%616160
Overall100%69/10070/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

MiniMax-M3 vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.7 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M3MiniMaxInkling SmallThinking MachinesQwen3.7 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.0150.2 (best)147.4
ECI rank#62 of 148#47 of 148 (best)#61 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.9% (best)88.5%87.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—46.3% (best)34.4%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics71.1%90.0%93.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—19.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.50$0.40
Output$1.20 (best)$1.20 (best)$1.60
Cached input$0.06—$0.04 (best)
Blended (3:1)$0.525 (best)$0.675$0.70
Long-context rateOver 512K: $0.60 / $2.40Same rateOver 256K: $1.20 / $4.80
Price sourceOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIMedian of 11 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output512,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoYesNoYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDMiniMax-M3—qwen3.7-plus
API providers42 (best)1125
ReleasedJun 1, 2026Jul 30, 2026Jun 2, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——Apr 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
  • Inkling Small$7.40
  • Qwen3.7 Plus$7.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M3, Inkling Small or Qwen3.7 Plus?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small 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, Inkling Small or Qwen3.7 Plus?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Inkling Small costs $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers); Qwen3.7 Plus costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $0.675 for Inkling Small (1.3× as much) and $0.70 for Qwen3.7 Plus (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148), Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 (#61 of 148) and MiniMax-M3 147.0 (#62 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 145.7–148.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — MiniMax-M3 90.9%, Inkling Small 88.5%, Qwen3.7 Plus 87.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.7 Plus 93.3%, Inkling Small 90.0%, MiniMax-M3 71.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M3, Inkling Small and Qwen3.7 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Inkling Small 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 Inkling Small 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, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Qwen3.7 Plus up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

MiniMax-M3 accepts text, images and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Qwen3.7 Plus accepts text, images and video. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

MiniMax-M3 and Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.7 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Qwen3.7 Plus came out Jun 2, 2026; MiniMax-M3 came out Jun 1, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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