Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) by Google 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
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) scores 4.8 points higher (34.0 vs 29.2) but costs 3.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1614 vs $538; both premium class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 29.2, and MiniMax-M3 when 29.2 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.0 | 29.2 | −14.1% MiniMax-M3 is 14.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,614.42 | $537.98 | −66.7% MiniMax-M3 is 66.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.59s | 25.47s | +44.8% MiniMax-M3 is 44.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High): 14.1% less intelligence, 66.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)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/gemini-3-6-flash/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-6-flash/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill