Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) 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 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 10.6 points higher (39.8 vs 29.2) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $538; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise MiniMax-M3.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 29.2 | −26.6% MiniMax-M3 is 26.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $537.98 | −51.1% MiniMax-M3 is 51.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 25.47s | — not comparable |
| 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 3.8 Flash (Medium): 26.6% less intelligence, 51.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) 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 3.8 Flash (Medium)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-3-8-flash-medium/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-medium/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill