Model comparison

MiniMax-M3 vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M3 MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct Microsoft

29.7

Rank #305 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M3 leads 62.1 to 27.1.

Side by side

MiniMax-M3 and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct specifications
MiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
ProviderMiniMaxMicrosoft
Noometry Index43.829.7
Released2026-06-012024-04-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window1M—
Max output512K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.30—
Output $ / M tokens$1.20—
Results tracked4119

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Coding14691039
FrontierCode14.7%—
LMArena WebDev1482—
SciCode47.1%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—29.6%
BigCodeBench Complete—40.6%
ALE-Bench640.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
APEX-Agents37.7%—
OSWorld 2.04.6%—
GBAEval0.9%—
Vending-Bench 22,158—

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14471028
SimpleBench45.8%—
NYT Connections (extended)65.1%—
CritPt3.7%—
Chess Puzzles14%—
Mystery Game Puzzles8%—
DTBench78.9%—
LMCA33.7%—
Surface Evolver Bench55%—
Epoch Capabilities Index146.95—
ForecastBench61.4—

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Math14291089
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench18%—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Expert1461984
GPQA Diamond90.9%—

Multimodal Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Vision1253—
LMArena Document1435—

Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14201000
LMArena Chinese14631016
LMArena French14471039
LMArena German14261006
LMArena Japanese1381899
LMArena Korean1372856
LMArena Russian14281004
LMArena Spanish14321059

Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14331023

Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query1445996

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M3Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Text14331050
LMArena Creative Writing14041024
LMArena Multi-Turn1442989
EQ-Bench 41150—

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M3 better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Is MiniMax-M3 or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 28.8 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.

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