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Model comparison

MiniMax M3 vs Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro

MiniMax against Xiaomi, 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

Xiaomi

Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMiniMax M3Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro
ProviderMiniMaxXiaomi
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$0.435
Output / 1M tokens$1.20Winner: $0.87
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters428B total / 23B active (MoE)1.02T total / 42B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video, audio
LicenseNot disclosedUnverifiedMIT
API model idMiniMax-M3mimo-v2.6-pro
ReleasedJune 1, 2026September 21, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)29.2Winner: 46.3
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-06-01)66Winner: 89.9
DeepSWE 1.1 (2026-09-21)Not verifiedUnverified71.9

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.

  • 2026-09-21
    Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6 announcement (vendor)

    Agentic software engineering: pass@1 on real repo tasks with reported cost per completed task.

    Directly comparable

  • 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.

Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro: $0.435/$0.87 per MTok (cache hit $0.0036; cache writes free for a limited time) — unchanged from V2.5-Pro. UltraSpeed mode (mimo-v2.6-pro-ultraspeed) costs $4.35/$8.70. Open weights (MIT) as MiMo-V2.6-Pro-RL.

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.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro

MiMo-V2.6-Pro is Xiaomi's open-weight (MIT) 1.02T MoE with omni-modal input and a 1M context — the top open-weight model on the Artificial Analysis index at under $1 per million output tokens.

Best for

  • Open-weight frontier work
  • Omni-modal input
  • Cheap long-context API

Watch out

Max output is not verified; vendor benchmark claims (DeepSWE 71.9) are not yet independently reproduced.

When the cheaper one wins

Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro is cheaper on output at $0.87 per million tokens against $1.20 for MiniMax M3 — about 1.4×. 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.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, reasoning levels.
  • 2 shared named benchmarks with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Terminal-Bench 2.1.
  • 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 · Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro

Common questions

MiniMax M3 vs Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro

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

Is MiniMax M3 or Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $0.435 for Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro — roughly 1.4× 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. Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro has tiered pricing: $0.435/$0.87 per MTok (cache hit $0.0036; cache writes free for a limited time) — unchanged from V2.5-Pro. UltraSpeed mode (mimo-v2.6-pro-ultraspeed) costs $4.35/$8.70. Open weights (MIT) as MiMo-V2.6-Pro-RL.
Is MiniMax M3 or Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro cheaper for output?
Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro is cheaper at $0.87 per million output tokens, against $1.20 for MiniMax M3 — roughly 1.4× 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. Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro has tiered pricing: $0.435/$0.87 per MTok (cache hit $0.0036; cache writes free for a limited time) — unchanged from V2.5-Pro. UltraSpeed mode (mimo-v2.6-pro-ultraspeed) costs $4.35/$8.70. Open weights (MIT) as MiMo-V2.6-Pro-RL.
Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro?
Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for MiniMax M3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use MiniMax M3 or Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro?
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; Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro suits open-weight frontier work.

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 $0.435 for Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro — a 1.4x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro takes 1.05M against 1M for MiniMax M3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 46.3 to 29.2 (measured 2026-09-26).
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