Model comparison

gpt-oss-20b vs MiniMax-M3

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 25 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-20b OpenAI

32.1

Rank #249 Confirmed

MiniMax-M3

MiniMax

43.5

Rank #81 Confirmed

Summary

They share 25 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M3 leads 62.3 to 35.8.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 60.8% for gpt-oss-20b and 90.9% for MiniMax-M3.
gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M3.
MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

gpt-oss-20b and MiniMax-M3 specifications
	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
Provider	OpenAI	MiniMax
Noometry Index	32.1	43.5
Released	2025-08-05	2026-06-01
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	1M
Max output	16K	512K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.018	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.09	$1.20
Results tracked	34	41

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.1 (#185), MiniMax-M3: 41.5 (#111)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
SciCode	34.4%	47.1%
LMArena Coding	1307	1470
ALE-Bench	566.05	640.02
FrontierCode	—	14.7%
LMArena WebDev	—	1482
WeirdML	40.9%	—

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 9.2 (#146), MiniMax-M3: 22.5 (#121)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
Terminal-Bench	3.4%	—
APEX-Agents	—	37.7%
OSWorld 2.0	—	4.6%
GBAEval	—	0.9%
Vending-Bench 2	—	2,158

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 18.8 (#251), MiniMax-M3: 29.3 (#83)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
CritPt	1.4%	3.7%
Chess Puzzles	4%	14%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1274	1447
DTBench	68%	78.9%
LMCA	14.5%	33.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index	137.81	147
SimpleBench	—	45.8%
Kagi LLM Benchmark	53.2%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	—	65.1%
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	8%
Surface Evolver Bench	—	55%
ForecastBench	—	61.4

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#93), MiniMax-M3: 39.1 (#83)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	65.3%	71.1%
LMArena Math	1317	1432
ProofBench	—	18%
Omni-MATH	56.5%	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#186), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#32)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
GPQA Diamond	60.8%	90.9%
LMArena Expert	1258	1462
MMLU-Pro	74%	—
GPQA (HELM)	59.4%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: —, MiniMax-M3: 39.5 (#45)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
LMArena Vision	—	1254
LMArena Document	—	1435

Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 42.4 (#192), MiniMax-M3: 53.2 (#70)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
LMArena Non-English	1269	1420
LMArena Chinese	1311	1465
LMArena German	1249	1424
LMArena Japanese	1245	1381
LMArena Korean	1239	1372
LMArena Russian	1279	1430
LMArena Spanish	1267	1431
LMArena French	—	1445

Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 62.0 (#235), MiniMax-M3: 75.7 (#56)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
LMArena Instruction Following	1236	1433
IFEval	73.2%	—

Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#203), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#68)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
LMArena Longer Query	1251	1445

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

gpt-oss-20b: 35.8 (#260), MiniMax-M3: 62.3 (#79)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	gpt-oss-20b	MiniMax-M3
LMArena Text	1288	1433
LMArena Creative Writing	1201	1405
LMArena Multi-Turn	1268	1441
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	666	—
WildBench	73.7%	—
EQ-Bench 4	—	1150

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-20b better than MiniMax-M3?

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or MiniMax-M3?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M3 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is gpt-oss-20b or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.5 versus 37.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and MiniMax-M3 share?

25 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.