# Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M3

> MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-lite-vs-minimax-m3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 31

## Summary

- They share 31 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 5 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M3 leads 39.1 to 25.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Mystery Game Puzzles: 19% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 8% for MiniMax-M3.
- MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
- MiniMax-M3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 113 | 81 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.1 (#96)
- MiniMax-M3: 41.5 (#111)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1440 | 1482 |
| SciCode | 41.3% | 47.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1455 | 1470 |
| ALE-Bench | 765.27 | 640.02 |
| FrontierCode | — | 14.7% |
| WeirdML | 39% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 28.6 (#82)
- MiniMax-M3: 22.5 (#121)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 37.7% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | — | 4.6% |
| GBAEval | — | 0.9% |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 2,158 |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#95)
- MiniMax-M3: 29.3 (#83)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.4% | 65.1% |
| CritPt | 0% | 3.7% |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | 14% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1441 | 1447 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | 8% |
| DTBench | 83.5% | 78.9% |
| LMCA | 37.6% | 33.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.12 | 147 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | — |
| SimpleBench | — | 45.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 53.5% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 55% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.4 |

## Math

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#245)
- MiniMax-M3: 39.1 (#83)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | 71.1% |
| ProofBench | 13% | 18% |
| LMArena Math | 1431 | 1432 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 26% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 0% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.0 (#66)
- MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#32)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | 90.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1430 | 1462 |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 40.3 (#38)
- MiniMax-M3: 39.5 (#45)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1266 | 1254 |
| LMArena Document | — | 1435 |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.8 (#59)
- MiniMax-M3: 53.2 (#70)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1428 | 1420 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1467 | 1465 |
| LMArena French | 1452 | 1445 |
| LMArena German | 1454 | 1424 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1428 | 1381 |
| LMArena Korean | 1406 | 1372 |
| LMArena Russian | 1443 | 1430 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1440 | 1431 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 75.0 (#77)
- MiniMax-M3: 75.7 (#56)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | 1433 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.8 (#80)
- MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#68)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1435 | 1445 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.4 (#55)
- MiniMax-M3: 62.3 (#79)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1436 | 1433 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1419 | 1405 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1445 | 1441 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1559 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1150 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (42.1 vs 41.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M3 share?

31 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.