Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or MiniMax-M3.1-Flash by MiniMax? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 10.9 points higher (53.6 vs 42.7) but costs 7.7× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $283; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 42.7, and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when 42.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 42.7 | −20.3% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 20.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $283.18 | −87.0% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 87.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.81s | 25.34s | −25.1% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 25.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 20.3% less intelligence, 87.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 25.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)MiniMax-M3.1-FlashToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/minimax-m3-1-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/minimax-m3-1-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill