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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

MiniMax M3 vs Muse Spark 1.2

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

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

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Meta

Muse Spark 1.2

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMiniMax M3Muse Spark 1.2
ProviderMiniMaxMeta
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$1.25
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $1.20$4.25
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters428B total / 23B active (MoE)Meta frontier model
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxminimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video, audio, pdf
API model idMiniMax-M3muse-spark-1.2
ReleasedJune 1, 2026August 5, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)29.2Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified39.6
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-06-01)66Not 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.

  • 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.

  • 2026-06-01
    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

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.

Muse Spark 1.2: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.

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.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Muse Spark 1.2

Muse Spark 1.2 is Meta's closed frontier model until the 1.3 refresh (2026-09-02) — still served and ranked in the LMArena text top 10 as of mid-2026.

Best for

  • Frontier reasoning
  • Meta ecosystem
  • Agentic work

Watch out

Closed-weights (unlike Llama 4); Meta's post-Llama-4 frontier branding.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — about 3.5×. 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? MiniMax M3 · Muse Spark 1.2

Common questions

MiniMax M3 vs Muse Spark 1.2

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

Is MiniMax M3 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $1.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — roughly 4.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Is MiniMax M3 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — roughly 3.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Muse Spark 1.2 accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for MiniMax M3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do MiniMax M3 and Muse Spark 1.2 support the same reasoning levels?
MiniMax M3 exposes low, high, max, while Muse Spark 1.2 exposes minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max.
Should I use MiniMax M3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. MiniMax M3 suits open-weight deployments; Muse Spark 1.2 suits frontier reasoning.
Can I self-host MiniMax M3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Muse Spark 1.2 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 $1.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — a 4.2x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Muse Spark 1.2 takes 1.05M against 1M for MiniMax M3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Muse Spark 1.2 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 39.6 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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