Claude Opus 5 (Medium) vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or MiniMax-M3.1-Flash by MiniMax? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Medium) scores 2.1 points higher (44.8 vs 42.7) but costs 9.6× as much to run the benchmark ($2732 vs $283; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 42.7, and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when 42.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Medium) | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 42.7 | −4.7% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 4.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,731.91 | $283.18 | −89.6% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 89.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.73s | 23.83s | +87.2% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 87.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Claude Opus 5 (Medium): 4.7% less intelligence, 89.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 87.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- 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 (Medium)MiniMax-M3.1-FlashToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/minimax-m3-1-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/minimax-m3-1-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill