# Gemini 3.8 Flash vs MiniMax M1

> Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-vs-minimax-m1
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax M1 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.8 Flash leads 74.9 to 35.7.
- MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.40 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
- MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 59.5 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 13 | 146 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | $0.40 |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | $2.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 56.4 (#17)
- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1512 | 1359 |
| DeepSWE | 73.8% | — |
| FrontierCode | 41.2% | — |
| CursorBench | 39.6% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1581 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 19.6% | — |
| SciCode | 56.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,270 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.3 (#22)
- MiniMax M1: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 23.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,094 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 64.7 (#13)
- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1506 | 1340 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 97.4% | — |
| CritPt | 18.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 61% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 47% | — |
| DTBench | 95.7% | — |
| LMCA | 52.9% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 76.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.13 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 65.2 (#22)
- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1528 | 1360 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 68.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 98.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 48% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 74.9 (#2)
- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1529 | 1316 |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.4% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 44.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.9 (#33)
- MiniMax M1: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1312 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 38.6% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 31.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 57.9 (#5)
- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1486 | 1320 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1547 | 1361 |
| LMArena French | 1502 | 1369 |
| LMArena German | 1470 | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1505 | 1220 |
| LMArena Korean | 1479 | 1263 |
| LMArena Russian | 1507 | 1330 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1492 | 1354 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 78.2 (#11)
- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1489 | 1312 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 46.2 (#23)
- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1506 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 69.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 72.1 (#16)
- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1494 | 1343 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1485 | 1298 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1503 | 1335 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1748 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than MiniMax M1?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 56.4 versus 39.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.8 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.8 Flash and MiniMax M1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.8 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.
