Model comparison
MiniMax-M3 vs Step 2 16k Exp 202412
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.6 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
StepFunSummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 8 categories and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 34.6.
- MiniMax-M3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 43.5 | 38.6 |
| Released | 2026-06-01 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | — |
| Max output | 512K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 41 | 12 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 41.5 (#111), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 37.9 (#170)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1470 | 1316 |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | — |
| SciCode | 47.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 640.02 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 22.5 (#121), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| 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), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 24.8 (#140)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1447 | 1299 |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 65.1% | — |
| CritPt | 3.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 14% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 8% | — |
| DTBench | 78.9% | — |
| LMCA | 33.7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 147 | — |
| ForecastBench | 61.4 | — |
Math MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 39.1 (#83), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 33.6 (#171)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1432 | 1305 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 18% | — |
Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#32), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 34.6 (#187)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1462 | 1279 |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 39.5 (#45), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1254 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | — |
Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 53.2 (#70), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 43.9 (#176)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1420 | 1290 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1331 |
| LMArena Russian | 1430 | 1324 |
| LMArena French | 1445 | — |
| LMArena German | 1424 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1381 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1372 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1431 | — |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 75.7 (#56), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 68.1 (#187)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1433 | 1287 |
Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#68), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 39.7 (#165)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | 1307 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 62.3 (#79), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 52.5 (#168)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1433 | 1321 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1405 | 1328 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1441 | 1292 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1150 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M3 better than Step 2 16k Exp 202412?
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.6 on the Noometry Index.
Is MiniMax-M3 or Step 2 16k Exp 202412 better for coding?
MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.5 versus 37.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 has 12.