Model comparison

GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M3

OpenAI against MiniMax, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 2, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

OpenAI

GPT-6 Astra

Frontier

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
Specification	GPT-6 Astra	MiniMax M3
Provider
Provider	OpenAI	MiniMax
Tier
Tier	Frontier	Frontier
Context window
Context window	Winner: 1.05M	1M
Max output
Max output	128K	Not verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens
Input / 1M tokens	$10	Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens
Output / 1M tokens	$50	Winner: $1.20
Weights
Weights	Closed	Open
Parameters
Parameters	Not verifiedUnverified	428B total / 23B active (MoE)
Reasoning levels
Reasoning levels	low, medium, high, xhigh, max	Not verifiedUnverified
Modalities
Modalities	text, image	text, image, video
License
License	Not verifiedUnverified	MiniMax Community License
API model id
API model id	gpt-6-astra	MiniMax-M3
Released
Released	September 3, 2026	June 1, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-10-01
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-10-01	53	Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-10-01
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-10-01	Not verifiedUnverified	29
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03	74.1	Not verifiedUnverified
OSWorld 2.0 (offline) · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03
OSWorld 2.0 (offline) · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03	72.6	Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03
GPQA Diamond · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03	96	Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03
Humanity's Last Exam · source date GPT-6 Astra: 2026-09-03	57.2	Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-06-01
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-06-01	Not verifiedUnverified	66

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. 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.

Source date2026-10-01
Artificial Analysis (MiniMax-M3)
Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.
Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check the cited source and its date.
Source date2026-10-01
Artificial Analysis (GPT-6 Astra (max))
Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.
Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check the cited source and its date.
Source date2026-09-03
OpenAI GPT-6 Astra evaluation table (vendor-reported, with tools; maximum across evaluated efforts)
Frontier-knowledge ceiling: extremely hard multi-domain questions written to be near-impossible without deep expertise.
Comparable with caveatSubset/tool configurations (text-only vs with-tools) differ between vendors and materially change scores; must match configuration to compare.
Source date2026-09-03
OpenAI GPT-6 Astra evaluation table (vendor-reported; maximum across evaluated efforts)
Graduate-level science reasoning: multiple-choice questions written by domain PhDs.
Comparable with caveatDo not treat a fixed two-point band as universal measurement uncertainty; it depends on run count and evaluation setup. Chain-of-thought, prompt, and tool policy must match. The small pool limits fine-grained conclusions, and frontier scores can be near ceiling; Artificial Analysis dropped it from its Intelligence Index in v4.3.
Source date2026-09-03
OpenAI (vendor-reported) (v2026.08.08 offline set, partial reward; vendor research/API evaluation, maximum across evaluated efforts)
Computer-use: completing real OS tasks (files, apps, settings) in a sandboxed desktop.
Comparable with caveatOffline vs live interaction modes are NOT comparable; step budgets and screen resolution must match.
Source date2026-09-03
OpenAI (xhigh, mini-swe-agent; matches Datacurve's independent board (74.1% at $4.43/task, rank 1; board updated 2026-09-22))
Agentic software engineering: pass@1 on real repo tasks with reported cost per completed task.
Directly comparable
Source date2026-06-01
MiniMax vendor report: Terminus2, 8CPU/16GB sandbox, 2h, 128K generation budget; budget is not an API cap
Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment.
Comparable with caveatNot comparable with Terminal-Bench 3.0 or 4.0 (different task sets) or v1; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.

Pricing tiers

GPT-6 Astra: Standard $10/$50 per MTok (≤272K input); above 272K the full request bills $20/$75. Cached input $1/$2 and cache writes $12.50/$25 for short/long context. Batch/Flex are half Standard; Fast is 2x. Ultrafast is 6x: $60/$300 short, $120/$450 long, through Responses with global/US processing; no EU or other regional inference residency. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Apr 30 2026. Enterprise model access is disabled by default.

MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.

FrontierRecord checked October 1, 2026

GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI describes GPT-6 Astra as its most capable model for complex reasoning, coding and computer use, and the first it gates at the Preparedness Framework's 'Critical' cybersecurity threshold.

Best for

Computer-use agents
Agentic coding
Hard reasoning

Watch out

OpenAI places Astra at its Critical cybersecurity threshold and disables it by default for Enterprise. Tool calling requires Responses; none reasoning and custom temperature/top_p/logprobs are unsupported. Long prompts above 272K increase the full-request rate. GPT-6.1 Sol has lower base token prices; compare results on your own workload.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked October 2, 2026

MiniMax M3

MiniMax M3 is an open-weight (community license) 428B MoE with native multimodal and 1M context.

Best for

Open-weight deployments
Multimodal
Long-context

Watch out

Commercial checkpoint use requires Built with MiniMax M3 attribution and a one-time notice at or below $20M yearly revenue from the relevant products/services; above that threshold prior written authorization is required. Keep copyright/permission notices and follow prohibited-use terms. The checkpoint documents enabled/adaptive/disabled thinking. Hosted OpenAI compatibility defaults thinking on; Anthropic compatibility defaults it off and enables it with adaptive. Preview effort levels do not apply to M3. A hard output cap remains unverified.

Benchmark

DeepSWE 1.1 in context

Only GPT-6 Astra has a published DeepSWE 1.1 result. It is shown against the wider field, with cost per completed task alongside the score.

Local leader

GPT-6 Astra [xhigh]

74.1%

Rows shown

Best source-matched Pass@1 per model

Snapshot date

2026-10-01

Mirrored from deepswe.datacurve.ai

Better is toward the top-right (higher pass rate, lower cost). X-axis is reversed to match DeepSWE’s public chart. v1.1 uses average cost, output tokens and steps. Legacy v1 transcriptions are excluded here until an exact primary receipt is retained.

DeepSWE 1.1 leaderboard with pass rate, cost, tokens, and steps per task
#	Model	Pass@1	Cost / task	Tokens / task	Steps / task
1	GPT-6 Astra [xhigh]	74.1%	$4.43	30k	29
2	Gemini 3.8 Flash [high]	73.8%	$2.36	143k	166
3	Claude Opus 5 [max]	73.6%	$11.84	118k	99
4	GPT-5.6 Sol [max]	72.7%	$8.39	60k	61
5	Claude Fable 5 [xhigh]	69.9%	$13.41	80k	68
6	GPT-5.6 Terra [max]	69.6%	$4.95	72k	76
7	GLM 5.3 [max]	69.0%	$3.99	80k	124
8	Kimi K3 [max]	68.5%	$4.65	82k	98
9	Grok 4.6 [medium]	67.5%	$3.45	50k	70
10	GPT-5.6 Luna [max]	67.2%	$3.03	73k	102
11	GPT-5.5 [xhigh]	67.0%	$7.23	46k	82
12	Gemini 3.7 Flash [medium]	65.5%	$2.03	94k	117
13	GLM 5.3 Flash [max]	63.4%	$0.48	73k	123
14	DeepSeek V4-Pro [max]	62.8%	$0.24	106k	155
15	Claude Opus 4.8 [max]	59.0%	$13.22	135k	120
16	Qwen3.8-Max [xhigh]	57.5%	$3.73	95k	111
17	Muse Spark 1.2 [xhigh]	54.9%	$3.70	99k	101
18	Claude Sonnet 5 [max]	53.8%	$26.40	214k	268
19	Grok 4.5 [high]	53.8%	$2.42	36k	61
20	DeepSeek V4-Flash [max]	53.3%	$0.10	108k	153
21	Muse Spark 1.1 [xhigh]	53.3%	$2.36	74k	96
22	GPT-5.4 [xhigh]	51.8%	$5.65	71k	70
23	Gemini 3.6 Flash [high]	46.7%	$4.42	96k	117
24	GLM 5.2 [max]	43.8%	$3.92	78k	129
25	Gemini 3.5 Flash [high]	36.1%	$3.45	76k	105
26	Kimi K2.7 Code	30.5%	$2.82	59k	149
27	Claude Sonnet 4.6 [high]	29.9%	$5.52	76k	134
28	Gemini 3.1 Pro [high]	11.7%	$2.14	28k	76

“Best per model” shows each model’s highest source-matched Pass@1 in this capture; switch to all effort levels to see every retained configuration. Efforts differ across models, so this view is not a comparison at matched effort. The source was generated September 22 and captured October 1. Small gaps may not be statistically meaningful — confirm on deepswe.datacurve.ai.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $50 for GPT-6 Astra — about 42×. 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. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: Medium

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.
No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 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.

GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI model card — whole-profile source check October 1 (accessed 2026-10-01)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI current API pricing and processing tiers (accessed 2026-10-01)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI API changelog — September 3 release; checked October 1 (accessed 2026-10-01)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI — Introducing GPT-6 Astra (accessed 2026-09-03)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI API pricing (gpt-6-astra $10/$50) (accessed 2026-09-03)
GPT-6 Astra: CNBC — OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra (accessed 2026-09-03)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI model docs — gpt-6-astra (128K max output, effort levels) (accessed 2026-09-05)
GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI API pricing (gpt-6-astra ≤272K $10/$50, >272K $20/$75) (accessed 2026-09-26)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — Pay as You Go - MiniMax API Docs (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — Models - MiniMax API Docs (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — Model Invocation - MiniMax API Docs (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — OpenAI SDK - MiniMax API Docs (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — Anthropic SDK - MiniMax API Docs (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3 · Hugging Face (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — LICENSE · MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3 at main (accessed 2026-10-01)
MiniMax M3: MiniMax — MiniMax M3: Frontier Coding, 1M Context, Native Multimodality — All in One Model - MiniMax Research (accessed 2026-10-01)

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? GPT-6 Astra · MiniMax M3

Common questions

GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M3

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

Is GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3 cheaper for input?

MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $10 for GPT-6 Astra — roughly 33× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-6 Astra: Standard $10/$50 per MTok (≤272K input); above 272K the full request bills $20/$75. Cached input $1/$2 and cache writes $12.50/$25 for short/long context. Batch/Flex are half Standard; Fast is 2x. Ultrafast is 6x: $60/$300 short, $120/$450 long, through Responses with global/US processing; no EU or other regional inference residency. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Apr 30 2026. Enterprise model access is disabled by default. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.

Is GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3 cheaper for output?

MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $50 for GPT-6 Astra — roughly 42× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-6 Astra: Standard $10/$50 per MTok (≤272K input); above 272K the full request bills $20/$75. Cached input $1/$2 and cache writes $12.50/$25 for short/long context. Batch/Flex are half Standard; Fast is 2x. Ultrafast is 6x: $60/$300 short, $120/$450 long, through Responses with global/US processing; no EU or other regional inference residency. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Apr 30 2026. Enterprise model access is disabled by default. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.

Which has the larger context window, GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3?

GPT-6 Astra accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for MiniMax M3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Should I use GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3?

Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. GPT-6 Astra is a candidate for computer-use agents; MiniMax M3 is a candidate for open-weight deployments. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Can I self-host GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3?

MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. GPT-6 Astra 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 M3 costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $10 for GPT-6 Astra — a 33.3x difference at the headline tier.
Context: GPT-6 Astra takes 1.05M against 1M for MiniMax M3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.

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