MiniMax-M3 vs Mistral Large 4 Preview
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax or Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral? 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
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 9.2 points higher (38.4 vs 29.2) but costs 3.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1608 vs $538; both premium class). Pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise MiniMax-M3.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 38.4 | +31.5% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 31.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $1,607.86 | +198.9% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 3.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 25.47s | 25.45s | −0.1% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 0.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $1.36 / $4.18 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 4 Preview vs MiniMax-M3: 31.5% more intelligence, 198.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 0.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Mistral Large 4 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
MiniMax-M3Mistral Large 4 PreviewToday'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/mistral-large-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/mistral-large-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill