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Model comparison

MiniMax M3 vs Mistral Large 3

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

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

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMiniMax M3Mistral Large 3
ProviderMiniMaxMistral
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1M262K
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$0.50
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $1.20$1.50
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters428B total / 23B active (MoE)675B total / 41B active (sparse MoE)
Reasoning levelsNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image
LicenseMiniMax Community LicenseApache 2.0
API model idMiniMax-M3mistral-large-2512
ReleasedJune 1, 2026December 2, 2025
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-10-0129Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date Mistral Large 3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified9
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-06-0166Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond · source date Mistral Large 3: 2026-09-26Not verifiedUnverified68

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 (Mistral Large 3)

    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 (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 date2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis GPQA Diamond (independent; replaces Mistral's non-comparable base-model 5-shot 43.9)

    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 date2026-06-01
    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

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.

Mistral Large 3: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05. The 675B-total / 41B-active multimodal checkpoint declares Apache 2.0. Regional hosting is endpoint-specific.

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.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked October 2, 2026

Mistral Large 3

Mistral's December 2025 multimodal 675B/41B sparse MoE with a 256K context; Medium 3.5 is a separate dense model with configurable reasoning.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal EU-hosted inference
  • Balanced frontier work

Watch out

The publisher describes Large 3 as not a dedicated reasoning model and documents vision limitations. It advertises FP8 deployment on a B200/H200 node or a separate NVFP4 checkpoint on H100/A100 nodes; this is not a guarantee for every serving setup. A separate hard output cap is not verified. Confirm regional residency on the actual endpoint.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $1.50 for Mistral Large 3 — about 1.3×. 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.

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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.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, 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 24 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? MiniMax M3 · Mistral Large 3

Common questions

MiniMax M3 vs Mistral Large 3

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

Is MiniMax M3 or Mistral Large 3 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $0.50 for Mistral Large 3 — roughly 1.7× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; 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. Mistral Large 3: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05. The 675B-total / 41B-active multimodal checkpoint declares Apache 2.0. Regional hosting is endpoint-specific.
Is MiniMax M3 or Mistral Large 3 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $1.50 for Mistral Large 3 — roughly 1.3× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; 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. Mistral Large 3: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05. The 675B-total / 41B-active multimodal checkpoint declares Apache 2.0. Regional hosting is endpoint-specific.
Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Mistral Large 3?
MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens against 262K for Mistral Large 3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use MiniMax M3 or Mistral Large 3?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. MiniMax M3 is a candidate for open-weight deployments; Mistral Large 3 is a candidate for open-weight deployments. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

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 $0.50 for Mistral Large 3 — a 1.7x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: MiniMax M3 takes 1M against 262K for Mistral Large 3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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