GPT-6 Astra (Medium) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Astra (Medium) by OpenAI 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
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) scores 20.4 points higher (49.6 vs 29.2) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($2434 vs $538; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Medium) when you need intelligence above 29.2, and MiniMax-M3 when 29.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6 Astra (Medium) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 29.2 | −41.1% MiniMax-M3 is 41.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,434.12 | $537.98 | −77.9% MiniMax-M3 is 77.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.07s | 25.25s | +79.5% MiniMax-M3 is 79.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs GPT-6 Astra (Medium): 41.1% less intelligence, 77.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
GPT-6 Astra (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/gpt-6-astra-medium/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-astra-medium/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill