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Model comparison

Grok 4.7 vs MiniMax M3

SpaceXAI 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

SpaceXAI

Grok 4.7

Frontier

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationGrok 4.7MiniMax M3
ProviderSpaceXAIMiniMax
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window500KWinner: 1M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$2Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens$6Winner: $1.20
WeightsClosedOpen
Parametersnew, larger base model with longer RL on multi-hour tasks428B total / 23B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, medium, high, xhighlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
API model idgrok-4.7MiniMax-M3
ReleasedSeptember 21, 2026June 1, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)46.4Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified29.2
DeepSWE 1.1 [high] (2026-09-21)71Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 4.0 [xhigh] (2026-09-26)25.8Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-06-01)Not verifiedUnverified66

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.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis Terminal-Bench 4.0 (independent AA run, part of Intelligence Index v4.3.2)

    Agentic terminal work: long multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment.

    Comparable with caveatNOT comparable with Terminal-Bench 2.x or 3.0 — 4.0 uses a new, non-overlapping task set. Within 4.0, scores from different harnesses (tbench.ai agent entries vs Artificial Analysis runs) are not interchangeable.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    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 measuredAt.

  • 2026-09-21
    xAI — Grok 4.7 announcement (vendor; not yet on Datacurve's board)

    Agentic software engineering: pass@1 on real repo tasks with reported cost per completed task.

    Directly comparable

  • 2026-06-01
    MiniMax blog (vendor, Terminus 2 scaffolding, 2h timeout)

    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

Grok 4.7: $2/$6 per MTok (<200K prompt); $4/$12 for all tokens at ≥200K. Cached input $0.50/MTok ($1.00 at ≥200K). US regional endpoint 1.1x. No Batch API; the 2x-price 'Fast' variant is Cursor and Grok Build only. xAI lists no separate text-output cap. Knowledge cutoff May 2026.

MiniMax M3: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok; open (community license). 428B/23B active MoE, native multimodal. Rate is the ≤512K-prompt tier; higher above.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Grok 4.7

Grok 4.7 is xAI's flagship since 2026-09-21 — a larger new base model with longer RL on multi-hour tasks, at Grok 4.6's $2/$6 price.

Best for

  • Coding agents
  • Cost-sensitive frontier work
  • Cursor and GitHub Copilot users

Watch out

Token rates double above a 200K-token prompt and there is no Batch API; the DeepSWE figure is vendor-reported.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 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

Community license, not fully open; verify terms.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $6 for Grok 4.7 — about 5.0×. 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.

Run the model picker

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.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output.
  • 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? Grok 4.7 · MiniMax M3

Common questions

Grok 4.7 vs MiniMax M3

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

Is Grok 4.7 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $2 for Grok 4.7 — roughly 6.7× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Grok 4.7 has tiered pricing: $2/$6 per MTok (<200K prompt); $4/$12 for all tokens at ≥200K. Cached input $0.50/MTok ($1.00 at ≥200K). US regional endpoint 1.1x. No Batch API; the 2x-price 'Fast' variant is Cursor and Grok Build only. xAI lists no separate text-output cap. Knowledge cutoff May 2026. MiniMax M3 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok; open (community license). 428B/23B active MoE, native multimodal. Rate is the ≤512K-prompt tier; higher above.
Is Grok 4.7 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $6 for Grok 4.7 — roughly 5.0× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Grok 4.7 has tiered pricing: $2/$6 per MTok (<200K prompt); $4/$12 for all tokens at ≥200K. Cached input $0.50/MTok ($1.00 at ≥200K). US regional endpoint 1.1x. No Batch API; the 2x-price 'Fast' variant is Cursor and Grok Build only. xAI lists no separate text-output cap. Knowledge cutoff May 2026. MiniMax M3 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok; open (community license). 428B/23B active MoE, native multimodal. Rate is the ≤512K-prompt tier; higher above.
Which has the larger context window, Grok 4.7 or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens against 500K for Grok 4.7. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Grok 4.7 and MiniMax M3 support the same reasoning levels?
Grok 4.7 exposes low, medium, high, xhigh, while MiniMax M3 exposes low, high, max.
Should I use Grok 4.7 or MiniMax M3?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Grok 4.7 suits coding agents; MiniMax M3 suits open-weight deployments.
Can I self-host Grok 4.7 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. Grok 4.7 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 $2 for Grok 4.7 — a 6.7x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: MiniMax M3 takes 1M against 500K for Grok 4.7 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Grok 4.7 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 46.4 to 29.2 (measured 2026-09-26).
  • Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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