Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 13.3 points higher (56.0 vs 42.7) but costs 14× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $283; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 42.7, and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when 42.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 42.7 | −23.7% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 23.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $283.18 | −93.0% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 93.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 115.71s | 21.66s | −81.3% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 81.3% 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 23.7% less intelligence, 93.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 81.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)MiniMax-M3.1-FlashToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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