MiniMax-M3 vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 17.9 points higher (29.2 vs 11.3) but costs 13× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 11.3 | −61.3% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 61.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $42.50 | −92.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 92.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 26.74s | 14.50s | −45.8% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 45.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs MiniMax-M3: 61.3% less intelligence, 92.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 45.8% 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 Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
MiniMax-M3Mistral Small 4 (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/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill