Model comparison

MiniMax-M3 vs Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 43.8 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M3 costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 28 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M3

MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Qwen3.8 27B

Alibaba (Qwen)

46.0

Rank #68 Confirmed

Summary

They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.8 27B in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 41.6.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 65.1% for MiniMax-M3 and 54.5% for Qwen3.8 27B.
MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.99 / $1.49 for Qwen3.8 27B.
MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M3 and Qwen3.8 27B specifications
	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
Provider	MiniMax	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	43.8	46.0
Released	2026-06-01	2026-08-14
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	1M	262K
Max output	512K	33K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.99
Output $ / M tokens	$1.20	$1.49
Results tracked	41	31

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.8 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118), Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena WebDev	1482	1593
SciCode	47.1%	46.6%
LMArena Coding	1469	1482
FrontierCode	14.7%	—
ALE-Bench	640.02	—

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.8 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130), Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
APEX-Agents	37.7%	47.5%
OSWorld 2.0	4.6%	—
GBAEval	0.9%	—
Vending-Bench 2	2,158	—

Reasoning Qwen3.8 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
NYT Connections (extended)	65.1%	54.5%
CritPt	3.7%	5.4%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1447	1460
DTBench	78.9%	88%
LMCA	33.7%	41.4%
Surface Evolver Bench	55%	45%
Epoch Capabilities Index	146.95	149.38
ARC-AGI-2	—	42.4%
SimpleBench	45.8%	—
ARC-AGI-1	—	87.5%
Chess Puzzles	14%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	8%	—
ForecastBench	61.4	—

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95), Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
ProofBench	18%	16%
LMArena Math	1429	1456
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	71.1%	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Expert	1461	1482
GPQA Diamond	90.9%	—

Multimodal Qwen3.8 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Vision	1253	1271
LMArena Document	1435	—

Multilingual Too close to call

MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75), Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Non-English	1420	1430
LMArena Chinese	1463	1504
LMArena French	1447	1465
LMArena German	1426	1438
LMArena Japanese	1381	1384
LMArena Korean	1372	1393
LMArena Russian	1428	1415
LMArena Spanish	1432	1448

Instruction Following Too close to call

MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62), Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Instruction Following	1433	1439

Long Context Too close to call

MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72), Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Longer Query	1445	1450

Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 27B leads

MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83), Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M3	Qwen3.8 27B
LMArena Text	1433	1441
LMArena Creative Writing	1404	1384
LMArena Multi-Turn	1442	1441
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	—	1671
EQ-Bench 4	1150	—

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M3 better than Qwen3.8 27B?

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3 or Qwen3.8 27B?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B lists at $0.99 and $1.49.

Is MiniMax-M3 or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 41.8 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 Qwen3.8 27B share?

28 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.