Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M3

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 41.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 32 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

MiniMax-M3 MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 32 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 5 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M3 leads 40.0 to 25.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Mystery Game Puzzles: 19% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 8% for MiniMax-M3.
  • MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
  • MiniMax-M3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
ProviderGoogleMiniMax
Noometry Index41.543.8
Released2026-07-212026-06-01
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M1M
Max output66K512K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$1.20
Results tracked3941

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena WebDev14401482
SciCode41.3%47.1%
LMArena Coding14531469
ALE-Bench765.27640.02
FrontierCode—14.7%
WeirdML39%—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
APEX-Agents29.3%37.7%
OSWorld 2.0—4.6%
GBAEval—0.9%
GDP.pdf10%—
Vending-Bench 2—2,158

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%65.1%
CritPt0%3.7%
Chess Puzzles22%14%
LMArena Hard Prompts14411447
Mystery Game Puzzles19%8%
DTBench83.5%78.9%
LMCA37.6%33.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13146.95
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
SimpleBench—45.8%
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
Surface Evolver Bench—55%
ForecastBench—61.4

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%71.1%
ProofBench13%18%
LMArena Math14331429
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
GPQA Diamond83.3%90.9%
LMArena Expert14351461

Multimodal Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena Vision12681253
LMArena Document—1435

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena Non-English14271420
LMArena Chinese14691463
LMArena French14511447
LMArena German14541426
LMArena Japanese14271381
LMArena Korean14071372
LMArena Russian14431428
LMArena Spanish14421432

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena Instruction Following14201433

Long Context Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena Longer Query14351445

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMiniMax-M3
LMArena Text14351433
LMArena Creative Writing14201404
LMArena Multi-Turn14451442
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—
EQ-Bench 4—1150

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 41.5 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (42.4 vs 41.8); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M3 share?

32 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.

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