# MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3 8B

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 2.7× 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-qwen3-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen3 8B in 1 category; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where MiniMax M1 leads 25.8 to 16.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Fiction.LiveBench: 69.4% for MiniMax M1 and 62.1% for Qwen3 8B.
- Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 / $0.70 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 33.3 |
| Rank | 146 | 237 |
| Context | 1M | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $0.18 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $0.70 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- Qwen3 8B: 33.4 (#245)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 22.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax M1: —
- Qwen3 8B: 29.9 (#71)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 42.6% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- Qwen3 8B: 16.1 (#299)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | — |
| DTBench | — | 59.7% |
| LMCA | — | 8.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 136.17 |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- Qwen3 8B: 33.3 (#176)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 56.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1360 | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#164)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.8% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | — |
| LMArena French | 1369 | — |
| LMArena German | 1350 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | — |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- Qwen3 8B: 37.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | 62.1% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3 8B?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 2.7× 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 Qwen3 8B?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.18 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.40 and $2.20.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 8B better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.2 versus 33.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Qwen3 8B share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 8B has 11.