MiniMax-M3 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax or Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.8 Max scores 11.0 points higher (40.2 vs 29.2) but costs 5.9× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $538; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 29.2, and MiniMax-M3 when 29.2 is enough.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 40.2 | +37.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 37.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $3,172.37 | +489.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 5.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 24.85s | 62.87s | +153.0% Qwen3.8 Max is 153.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs MiniMax-M3: 37.7% more intelligence, 489.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 153.0% slower 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
MiniMax-M3Qwen3.8 MaxToday'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/qwen3-8-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill