MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash by MiniMax or Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores 35.6 points higher (42.7 vs 7.1) but costs 10× as much to run the benchmark ($283 vs $27.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.7 | 7.1 | −83.4% Mistral Small 3.1 is 83.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $283.18 | $27.82 | −90.2% Mistral Small 3.1 is 90.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.62s | 10.95s | −51.6% Mistral Small 3.1 is 51.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.08 / $0.14 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.1 vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash: 83.4% less intelligence, 90.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 51.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
MiniMax-M3.1-FlashMistral Small 3.1Today'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/minimax-m3-1-flash/mistral-small-3-1 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3-1-flash/mistral-small-3-1?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill