DeepSeek V3 0324 vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 0324 by DeepSeek or MiniMax-M3 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 19.5 points higher (29.2 vs 9.7) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $19.9; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 9.7, and DeepSeek V3 0324 when 9.7 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 0324 | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.7 | 29.2 | +201.0% MiniMax-M3 is 3.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $19.87 | $537.98 | +2607.5% MiniMax-M3 is 27× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.96s | 26.74s | +439.1% MiniMax-M3 is 439.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.24 / $0.90 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs DeepSeek V3 0324: 201.0% more intelligence, 2607.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 439.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 0324 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
DeepSeek V3 0324MiniMax-M3Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill