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Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs MiniMax M2.7

Google against MiniMax, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Balanced

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M2.7

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationGemini 3.6 FlashMiniMax M2.7
ProviderGoogleMiniMax
TierBalancedBalanced
Context windowWinner: 1.05M205K
Max output66KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.75Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens$3.75Winner: $1.20
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot disclosedUnverifiedNot disclosedUnverified
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, image, video, audio, pdftext
API model idgemini-3.6-flashMiniMax-M2.7
ReleasedJuly 21, 2026March 18, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [high] (2026-09-26)34Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified22.8
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-07)78Not verifiedUnverified
DeepSWE 1.1 (2026-07)48.6Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-08)51.2Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Gemini 3.6 Flash: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input.

MiniMax M2.7: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API; cache read $0.06, cache write $0.375. Open weights on Hugging Face (licence terms not re-verified).

BalancedRecord checked September 26, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google's balanced multimodal Flash tier with a 1M-token context.

Best for

  • Multimodal pipelines
  • High-volume processing
  • Video and audio input

Watch out

Superseded by 3.7 Flash on quality; still a solid mid-tier.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

MiniMax M2.7

MiniMax M2.7 is MiniMax's current text-only open-weight model with a 204,800-token context, priced like M3.

Best for

  • Text-only agents
  • Open-weight deployments
  • Cost-sensitive coding

Watch out

Text-only and a 204,800-token context — M3 has 1M context and multimodal input at the same $0.30/$1.20 list price.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M2.7 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — about 3.1×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 2/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, parameter count, reasoning levels.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Gemini 3.6 Flash · MiniMax M2.7

Common questions

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs MiniMax M2.7

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax M2.7 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M2.7 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $0.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — roughly 2.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. MiniMax M2.7 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API; cache read $0.06, cache write $0.375. Open weights on Hugging Face (licence terms not re-verified).
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax M2.7 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M2.7 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — roughly 3.1× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. MiniMax M2.7 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API; cache read $0.06, cache write $0.375. Open weights on Hugging Face (licence terms not re-verified).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax M2.7?
Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1.05M tokens against 205K for MiniMax M2.7. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax M2.7?
Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Gemini 3.6 Flash suits multimodal pipelines; MiniMax M2.7 suits text-only agents.
Can I self-host Gemini 3.6 Flash or MiniMax M2.7?
MiniMax M2.7 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Gemini 3.6 Flash is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: MiniMax M2.7 costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $0.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — a 2.5x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1.05M against 205K for MiniMax M2.7 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 34 to 22.8 (measured 2026-09-26).
  • Deployment: MiniMax M2.7 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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