# MiniMax M1 vs Step 3

> MiniMax M1 and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.7 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m1-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 15

## Summary

- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 1 category and Step 3 in 7 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 39.9 |
| Rank | 146 | 145 |
| Context | 1M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | — |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1367 |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1360 | 1366 |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | 1333 |

## Multimodal

- MiniMax M1: —
- Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1176 |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

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

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1340 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Step 3?

MiniMax M1 and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.7 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Step 3 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (39.2 vs 39.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Step 3 share?

15 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.