# MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m1-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 35.7.
- MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.40 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 146 | 82 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax M1: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1448 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.1% |
| LMCA | — | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 142.41 |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1360 | 1447 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | 1457 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | 1479 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1450 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | 1463 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1420 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | 66.7% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1446 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 Max?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 39.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Qwen3 Max share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.