gpt-oss-120b (High) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-120b (High) 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 17.6 points higher (29.2 vs 11.6) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $123; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 11.6, and gpt-oss-120b (High) when 11.6 is enough.
| Metric | gpt-oss-120b (High) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.6 | 29.2 | +151.7% MiniMax-M3 is 2.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $122.71 | $537.98 | +338.4% MiniMax-M3 is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.44s | 25.25s | +120.7% MiniMax-M3 is 120.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs gpt-oss-120b (High): 151.7% more intelligence, 338.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 120.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- gpt-oss-120b (High) 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.
gpt-oss-120b (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/gpt-oss-120b/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-oss-120b/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill