Kimi K3.1 Pro vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi or MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 25.9 points higher (55.1 vs 29.2) but costs 5.8× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $538; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 29.2, and MiniMax-M3 when 29.2 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 29.2 | −47.0% MiniMax-M3 is 47.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $537.98 | −82.7% MiniMax-M3 is 82.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.64s | 26.74s | −37.3% MiniMax-M3 is 37.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 47.0% less intelligence, 82.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 37.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Kimi K3.1 ProMiniMax-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/kimi-k3-1-pro/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill