# MiniMax-M3 vs Mistral Small 3

> MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m3-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 25.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 71.1% for MiniMax-M3 and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M3.
- MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 43.8 | 31.2 |
| Rank | 85 | 278 |
| Context | 1M | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1469 | 1246 |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | — |
| SciCode | 47.1% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 640.02 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 37.7% | — |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 2,158 | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 14% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1447 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.95 | 127.07 |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 65.1% | — |
| CritPt | 3.7% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 8% | — |
| DTBench | 78.9% | — |
| LMCA | 33.7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55% | — |
| ForecastBench | 61.4 | — |

## Math

- MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)
- Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1429 | 1240 |
| ProofBench | 18% | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1461 | 1202 |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |

## Multimodal

- MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1253 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1420 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1463 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1447 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1426 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1381 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1372 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1428 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1432 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1433 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1433 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1442 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1150 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M3 better than Mistral Small 3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3 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-M3 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is MiniMax-M3 or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 does, with 1M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Mistral Small 3 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.