Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs MiniMax-M3
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 43.8 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M3 costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 34 shared benchmarks.
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MiniMaxSummary
- They share 34 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 30.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Chess Puzzles: 43% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 14% for MiniMax-M3.
- MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
- MiniMax-M3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 43.8 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2026-06-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Max output | 66K | 512K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.75 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 46 | 41 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | 14.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | 1482 |
| SciCode | 52.7% | 47.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | 1469 |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | 640.02 |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | 37.7% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | — | 4.6% |
| GBAEval | — | 0.9% |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 2,158 |
Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | 65.1% |
| CritPt | 10.6% | 3.7% |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | 14% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | 1447 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | 8% |
| DTBench | 95.5% | 78.9% |
| LMCA | 44.9% | 33.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | 146.95 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| SimpleBench | — | 45.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 55% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.4 |
Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | 71.1% |
| ProofBench | 36% | 18% |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | 1429 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | 90.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | 1461 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
Multimodal MiniMax-M3 leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | 1253 |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | 1435 |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | 1420 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | 1463 |
| LMArena French | 1504 | 1447 |
| LMArena German | 1478 | 1426 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | 1381 |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | 1372 |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | 1432 |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | 1433 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | 1445 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | 1433 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1442 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1150 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than MiniMax-M3?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 43.8 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M3 costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax-M3?
MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 41.8 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and MiniMax-M3 share?
34 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.