Model comparison

MiniMax-M3 vs Mistral Large 3

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 20 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M3

MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Mistral Large 3

Mistral AI

39.1

Rank #176 Confirmed

Summary

They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 9 categories and Mistral Large 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 36.0.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 65.1% for MiniMax-M3 and 7.5% for Mistral Large 3.
Mistral Large 3 is cheaper at $0.25 / $0.75 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M3.
MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M3 and Mistral Large 3 specifications
	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
Provider	MiniMax	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	43.8	39.1
Released	2026-06-01	2025-12-02
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	1M	262K
Max output	512K	8K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.25
Output $ / M tokens	$1.20	$0.75
Results tracked	41	24

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118), Mistral Large 3: 34.4 (#237)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena WebDev	1482	1230
LMArena Coding	1469	1448
FrontierCode	14.7%	—
SciCode	47.1%	—
ALE-Bench	640.02	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130), Mistral Large 3: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
APEX-Agents	37.7%	—
OSWorld 2.0	4.6%	—
GBAEval	0.9%	—
Vending-Bench 2	2,158	—

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87), Mistral Large 3: 15.2 (#319)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
NYT Connections (extended)	65.1%	7.5%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1447	1429
SimpleBench	45.8%	—
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	50.9%
CritPt	3.7%	—
Chess Puzzles	14%	—
Thematic Generalization	—	23%
Mystery Game Puzzles	8%	—
DTBench	78.9%	—
LMCA	33.7%	—
Surface Evolver Bench	55%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	146.95	—
ForecastBench	61.4	—

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95), Mistral Large 3: 38.7 (#129)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Math	1429	1414
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	71.1%	—
ProofBench	18%	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35), Mistral Large 3: 36.0 (#177)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Expert	1461	1421
GPQA Diamond	90.9%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	14.5%

Multimodal MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51), Mistral Large 3: 38.2 (#66)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Vision	1253	1221
LMArena Document	1435	—

Multilingual Too close to call

MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75), Mistral Large 3: 52.5 (#84)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Non-English	1420	1413
LMArena Chinese	1463	1447
LMArena French	1447	1455
LMArena German	1426	1437
LMArena Japanese	1381	1394
LMArena Korean	1372	1384
LMArena Russian	1428	1411
LMArena Spanish	1432	1440

Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62), Mistral Large 3: 74.0 (#108)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Instruction Following	1433	1403

Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72), Mistral Large 3: 43.1 (#105)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Longer Query	1445	1413

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83), Mistral Large 3: 60.0 (#101)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Text	1433	1428
LMArena Creative Writing	1404	1386
LMArena Multi-Turn	1442	1429
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	—	1412
EQ-Bench 4	1150	—

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M3 better than Mistral Large 3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3 or Mistral Large 3?

Mistral Large 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M3 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is MiniMax-M3 or Mistral Large 3 better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Mistral Large 3 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 3 has 24.