MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash by MiniMax or Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores 30.0 points higher (42.7 vs 12.7) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($283 vs $234; both mid-range class). Pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning).
| Metric | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash | Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.7 | 12.7 | −70.3% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 70.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $283.18 | $233.56 | −17.5% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 17.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.27s | 22.73s | +2.1% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 2.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.23 / $2.30 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash: 70.3% less intelligence, 17.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2.1% slower 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.
- Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
MiniMax-M3.1-FlashQwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)Today'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/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3-1-flash/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill