DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or MiniMax-M3 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 5.0 points higher (29.2 vs 24.2) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $149; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 24.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when 24.2 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 29.2 | +20.7% MiniMax-M3 is 20.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $537.98 | +259.9% MiniMax-M3 is 3.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 107.06s | 25.47s | −76.2% MiniMax-M3 is 76.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 20.7% more intelligence, 259.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 76.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)MiniMax-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-v4-flash-0420/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill