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Model comparison

MiniMax M3 vs Qwen 3.7 Max

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

Catalog record checked September 5, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.7 Max

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMiniMax M3Qwen 3.7 Max
ProviderMiniMaxQwen
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1M1M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverified128K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$2.50
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $1.20$7.50
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters428B total / 23B active (MoE)proprietary MoE
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video
API model idminimax-m3qwen3.7-max
ReleasedJune 1, 2026May 20, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)51Winner: 55
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

  • 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (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. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Scores across Terminal-Bench major versions (v1 vs v2) are NOT comparable; 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. · Qwen 3.7 Max: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 5, 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 3, 2026

Qwen 3.7 Max

Qwen 3.7 Max is Alibaba's previous-generation proprietary flagship with a 1M-token context.

Best for

  • API-only multimodal
  • Long-context
  • Enterprise

Watch out

Closed/proprietary; no published weights. Succeeded by Qwen 3.8 Max.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $7.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — about 6.3×. 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. 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.
  • 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 6 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 · Qwen 3.7 Max

Common questions

MiniMax M3 vs Qwen 3.7 Max

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

Is MiniMax M3 or Qwen 3.7 Max cheaper for input?

MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $2.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — roughly 8.3× 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. Qwen 3.7 Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API.

Is MiniMax M3 or Qwen 3.7 Max cheaper for output?

MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $7.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — roughly 6.3× 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. Qwen 3.7 Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API.

Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Qwen 3.7 Max?

Both accept about 1M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.

Do MiniMax M3 and Qwen 3.7 Max support the same reasoning levels?

Yes — both accept the same effort settings: "low", "high", "max". Higher effort costs more and takes longer, so start low and raise it only where output quality actually improves.

Should I use MiniMax M3 or Qwen 3.7 Max?

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; Qwen 3.7 Max suits api-only multimodal.

Can I self-host MiniMax M3 or Qwen 3.7 Max?

MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Qwen 3.7 Max 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 $2.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — a 8.3x difference at the headline tier.
  • Measured capability: Qwen 3.7 Max leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 55 to 51 (measured 2026-08-14).
  • Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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