Model comparison

MiniMax-M3 vs Qwen3.6 27B

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 10 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M3

MiniMax

43.5

Rank #81 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 27B

Alibaba (Qwen)

41.9

Rank #112 Confirmed

Summary

They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen3.6 27B in 1 category; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M3 leads 62.3 to 50.3.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 71.1% for MiniMax-M3 and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 27B.
MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.60 / $3.60 for Qwen3.6 27B.
MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M3 and Qwen3.6 27B specifications
	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
Provider	MiniMax	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	43.5	41.9
Released	2026-06-01	2026-04-22
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	1M	262K
Max output	512K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.60
Output $ / M tokens	$1.20	$3.60
Results tracked	41	11

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 41.5 (#111), Qwen3.6 27B: 38.5 (#162)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
SciCode	47.1%	37.3%
FrontierCode	14.7%	—
LMArena WebDev	1482	—
LMArena Coding	1470	—
ALE-Bench	640.02	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 22.5 (#121), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
APEX-Agents	37.7%	—
OSWorld 2.0	4.6%	—
GBAEval	0.9%	—
Vending-Bench 2	2,158	—

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 29.3 (#83), Qwen3.6 27B: 24.4 (#148)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
CritPt	3.7%	0.9%
Chess Puzzles	14%	22%
Mystery Game Puzzles	8%	7%
DTBench	78.9%	78.1%
LMCA	33.7%	34.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	147	146.47
SimpleBench	45.8%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	65.1%	—
LMArena Hard Prompts	1447	—
Surface Evolver Bench	55%	—
ForecastBench	61.4	—

Math Qwen3.6 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 39.1 (#83), Qwen3.6 27B: 47.5 (#56)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	71.1%	91.1%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	35.1%
ProofBench	18%	—
LMArena Math	1432	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#32), Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#58)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
GPQA Diamond	90.9%	85.9%
LMArena Expert	1462	—

Multimodal Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 39.5 (#45), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
LMArena Vision	1254	—
LMArena Document	1435	—

Multilingual Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 53.2 (#70), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
LMArena Non-English	1420	—
LMArena Chinese	1465	—
LMArena French	1445	—
LMArena German	1424	—
LMArena Japanese	1381	—
LMArena Korean	1372	—
LMArena Russian	1430	—
LMArena Spanish	1431	—

Instruction Following Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 75.7 (#56), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
LMArena Instruction Following	1433	—

Long Context Not comparable

MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#68), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
LMArena Longer Query	1445	—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 62.3 (#79), Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#180)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.6 27B
EQ-Bench 4	1150	1026
LMArena Text	1433	—
LMArena Creative Writing	1405	—
LMArena Multi-Turn	1441	—

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M3 better than Qwen3.6 27B?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.9 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3 or Qwen3.6 27B?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B lists at $0.60 and $3.60.

Is MiniMax-M3 or Qwen3.6 27B better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.5 versus 38.5 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 Qwen3.6 27B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 27B has 11.