Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google 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
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores 27.1 points higher (42.7 vs 15.6) but costs 1.8× as much to run the benchmark ($283 vs $156; both mid-range class). Pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 42.7 | +173.7% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 2.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $283.18 | +81.7% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 81.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.01s | 22.62s | +276.4% MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 276.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 173.7% more intelligence, 81.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 276.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteMiniMax-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/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview/minimax-m3-1-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview/minimax-m3-1-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill