# MiniMax M1 vs Mistral Small 3

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m1-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax M1 leads 53.3 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 146 | 268 |
| Context | 1M | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1246 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1233 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.06 |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1360 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1202 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1246 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Mistral Small 3?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Mistral Small 3?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.40 and $2.20.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.2 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Mistral Small 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.