Model comparison

MiniMax M3 vs Upstage Solar Pro 4

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

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

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

Upstage

Upstage Solar Pro 4

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
Specification	MiniMax M3	Upstage Solar Pro 4
Provider	MiniMax	Upstage
Tier	Frontier	Frontier
Context window	Winner: 1M	524K
Max output	Not verifiedUnverified	Not verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens	$0.30	$0.30
Output / 1M tokens	$1.20	$1.20
Weights	Open	Closed
Parameters	428B total / 23B active (MoE)	Not disclosedUnverified
Reasoning levels	low, high, max	low, medium, high
Modalities	text, image, video	text
API model id	minimax-m3	solar-pro-4
Released	June 1, 2026	August 10, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)	Winner: 51	50
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. · Upstage Solar Pro 4: List $0.30/$1.20 per MTok; live promo rate is $0.03/$0.12 (90% off through 2026-09-10). Closed API. 524K context.

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 2, 2026

Upstage Solar Pro 4

Solar Pro 4 is Upstage's closed flagship with a 524K context at a low launch price.

Best for

Long-context
Cost-sensitive API
Korean + English

Watch out

Closed API; promo pricing may end.

When the cheaper one wins

Both charge $1.20 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not the split. Prefer the row whose “best for” line matches the job, then confirm the live vendor rate.

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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, parameter count.
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)
Upstage Solar Pro 4: Upstage — Solar Pro 4 (accessed 2026-08-29)
Upstage Solar Pro 4: Upstage (accessed 2026-08-29)

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? MiniMax M3 · Upstage Solar Pro 4

Common questions

MiniMax M3 vs Upstage Solar Pro 4

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

Is MiniMax M3 or Upstage Solar Pro 4 cheaper for input?

Both cost $0.30 per million input tokens at standard rates, so input price is not a deciding factor between them.

Is MiniMax M3 or Upstage Solar Pro 4 cheaper for output?

Both cost $1.20 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not a deciding factor between them.

Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Upstage Solar Pro 4?

MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens against 524K for Upstage Solar Pro 4. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do MiniMax M3 and Upstage Solar Pro 4 support the same reasoning levels?

MiniMax M3 exposes low, high, max, while Upstage Solar Pro 4 exposes low, medium, high.

Should I use MiniMax M3 or Upstage Solar Pro 4?

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; Upstage Solar Pro 4 suits long-context.

Can I self-host MiniMax M3 or Upstage Solar Pro 4?

MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Upstage Solar Pro 4 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.

Context: MiniMax M3 takes 1M against 524K for Upstage Solar Pro 4 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Measured capability: MiniMax M3 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 51 to 50 (measured 2026-08-14).
Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.

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