Model comparison
MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3-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
Qwen
Qwen3-Max
Frontier
| Specification | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3-Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Qwen |
| Tier | Frontier | Frontier |
| Context window | Winner: 1M | 262K |
| Max output | Not verifiedUnverified | 66K |
| Input / 1M tokens | Winner: $0.30 | $1.20 |
| Output / 1M tokens | Winner: $1.20 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Parameters | 428B total / 23B active (MoE) | 1T (proprietary) |
| Reasoning levels | low, high, max | low, high, max |
| Modalities | text, image, video | text, image, video |
| API model id | minimax-m3 | qwen3-max |
| Released | June 1, 2026 | September 23, 2025 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14) | 51 | Winner: 52 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-06-01) | 66 | Not 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. · Qwen3-Max: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.
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.
Qwen3-Max
Qwen3-Max is Alibaba's proprietary 1-trillion-parameter API model with multimodal input.
Best for
- Agentic coding
- Multimodal knowledge work
- Long-context via API
Watch out
Max line is proprietary/API-only (no published weights). Per-provider prices differ.
When the cheaper one wins
MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $6 for Qwen3-Max — 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 pickerEvidence 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 (scores match) — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index — scores are equivalent, so the benchmark does not separate the pair.
- 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.
- MiniMax M3: MiniMax — M3 (accessed 2026-08-29)
- MiniMax M3: MiniMax M3 release (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Qwen3-Max: OpenRouter — Qwen3-Max (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Qwen3-Max: AI Release Tracker — Qwen3-Max (accessed 2026-08-29)
Related comparisons
- Claude Fable 5.1 vs MiniMax M3
- Claude Fable 5.1 vs Qwen3-Max
- Claude Fable 5 vs MiniMax M3
- Claude Fable 5 vs Qwen3-Max
- Claude Mythos 5.1 vs MiniMax M3
- Claude Mythos 5.1 vs Qwen3-Max
Diving deeper on one model? MiniMax M3 · Qwen3-Max
Common questions
MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3-Max
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Is MiniMax M3 or Qwen3-Max cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $1.20 for Qwen3-Max — roughly 4.0× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.
Is MiniMax M3 or Qwen3-Max cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $6 for Qwen3-Max — 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; 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. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.
Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3-Max?
MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens against 262K for Qwen3-Max. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do MiniMax M3 and Qwen3-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 Qwen3-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; Qwen3-Max suits agentic coding.
Can I self-host MiniMax M3 or Qwen3-Max?
MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Qwen3-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 $1.20 for Qwen3-Max — a 4x difference at the headline tier.
- Context: MiniMax M3 takes 1M against 262K for Qwen3-Max — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
- Measured capability: Qwen3-Max leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 52 to 51 (measured 2026-08-14).
- Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
Choosing a harness rather than a model — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf, or Lovable? Compare agentic harnesses · Latest releases.