Model comparison

MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 2.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 18 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax M1

MiniMax

40.3

Rank #150 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max

Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 36.4.
MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.55 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

MiniMax M1 and Qwen3 Max specifications
	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
Provider	MiniMax	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	40.3	43.7
Released	2025-06-13	2025-09-23
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	1M	262K
Max output	40K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.55	$1.20
Output $ / M tokens	$2.20	$6
Results tracked	18	33

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding	1359	1456
ALE-Bench	—	370.45

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax M1: —, Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 2	—	71.56

Reasoning MiniMax M1 leads

MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Hard Prompts	1339	1448
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	72.5%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	30.1%
Chess Puzzles	—	4%
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	5%
DTBench	—	82.1%
LMCA	—	28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index	—	142.38

Math Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Math	1361	1446
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	73.3%
MATH Level 5	—	97.1%

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Expert	1317	1455
GPQA Diamond	—	72.6%
SimpleQA Verified	—	48.7%

Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English	1319	1429
LMArena Chinese	1360	1478
LMArena French	1370	1449
LMArena German	1350	1463
LMArena Japanese	1217	1397
LMArena Korean	1266	1399
LMArena Russian	1329	1428
LMArena Spanish	1353	1462

Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following	1312	1419

Long Context Too close to call

MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
Fiction.LiveBench	69.4%	66.7%
LMArena Longer Query	1326	1438
CL-bench	—	14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text	1343	1439
LMArena Creative Writing	1298	1402
LMArena Multi-Turn	1335	1446

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3 Max?

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 Max?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 39.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Qwen3 Max share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.