---
title: "Compare alternatives to MiniMax M3 · Undominated.ai"
canonical: https://undominated.ai/alternatives/minimax__minimax-m3/
description: "10 alternatives score at least as high as MiniMax M3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 1 preserve recorded capabilities; 9 have named trade-offs."
---

# Compare alternatives to MiniMax M3 · Undominated.ai

> 10 alternatives score at least as high as MiniMax M3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 1 preserve recorded capabilities; 9 have named trade-offs.

# Alternatives to MiniMax M3

MiniMax · LMArena 1432.1 · $0.485/M on a balanced workload · prices as of 2026-10-06

 [Compare models](https://undominated.ai/compare/) Comparison context

Choose up to three standard models in Compare.

Requirements and prompt length apply in Compare. This page keeps its stated price basis and workload controls.

## 1 model is higher-scoring or cheaper, with neither dimension worse.

Of the 144 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, **10** score at least as high as MiniMax M3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload, with at least one of those dimensions improved. **1** matches or beats its recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. **9** have a recorded capability loss, named on every row.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page is built only while a candidate improves score or price without worsening the other under a listed workload. When that comparison no longer holds, it is not generated.

## Where it holds

| Workload | MiniMax M3 $/M | Recorded capabilities preserved | Recorded capability losses |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Balanced | $0.485 | 1 | 6 |
| Summarise | $0.257 | 1 | 7 |
| Chat | $0.541 | 1 | 8 |
| Code gen | $0.754 | 1 | 8 |
| Agentic | $0.270 | 1 | 8 |

Workload mixes are defined on the [methodology page](/methodology/). Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

## What you would be replacing

| Intelligence | 1432.1 |
| --- | --- |
| Context window | 1M |
| Max output | 512K |
| Input modes | text, image, video |
| Tool use | yes |
| Extended reasoning | yes |

Preserving recorded capabilities requires matching or beating these fields. [Full record for MiniMax M3](/models/minimax__minimax-m3/), or [check MiniMax M3 against the whole catalogue](/check/minimax__minimax-m3/).

## Recorded capabilities preserved 1

Each option has a higher score or a lower price, with neither dimension worse under the listed workloads. It matches or beats MiniMax M3 on recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning.

| # | Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [GLM 5.3 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) Z.ai | 1469.6 +37.5 | $0.238 | Balanced −51% Summarise −48% Chat −53% Code gen −54% Agentic −51% |

## Alternatives with recorded capability losses 9

These improve score or price without worsening the other under the listed workloads, but reduce at least one recorded capability. Read the last column before switching.

| Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under | Recorded capability loss |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [DeepSeek V4.1 Flash](/models/deepseek__deepseek-v4.1-flash/) DeepSeek | 1462.5 +30.4 | $0.182 | Balanced −62% Summarise −74% Chat −54% Code gen −52% Agentic −61% | no video input |
| [MiMo-V2.6-Flash](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-flash/) Xiaomi | 1456.4 +24.3 | $0.175 | Balanced −64% Summarise −58% Chat −71% Code gen −72% Agentic −71% | 512K → 131K max output |
| [Gemma 4 31B](/models/google__gemma-4-31b-it/) Google | 1443.4 +11.3 | $0.205 | Balanced −58% Summarise −41% Chat −55% Code gen −61% Agentic −34% | 1M → 262K context 512K → 16K max output |
| [Hy3](/models/tencent__hy3/) Tencent | 1440.7 tie | $0.231 | Balanced −52% Summarise −52% Chat −52% Code gen −52% Agentic −51% | 1M → 262K context 512K → 128K max output no image, video input |
| [Gemma 4 26B A4B](/models/google__gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/) Google | 1433.9 tie | $0.127 | Balanced −74% Summarise −73% Chat −72% Code gen −73% Agentic −70% | 1M → 262K context 512K → 236K max output |
| [DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423](/models/deepseek__deepseek-v4-flash/) DeepSeek | 1432.1 tie | $0.113 | Balanced −77% Summarise −71% Chat −81% Code gen −82% Agentic −78% | no image, video input |
| [MiMo-V2.6-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-pro/) Xiaomi | 1491 +58.9 | $0.478 chat | Chat −12% Code gen −12% Agentic −10% | 512K → 131K max output |
| [MiMo-V2.5-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.5-pro/) Xiaomi | 1465 +32.9 | $0.480 chat | Chat −11% Code gen −12% Agentic −10% | 512K → 131K max output no image, video input |
| [Qwen3.8 27B](/models/qwen__qwen3.8-27b/) Qwen | 1440.7 tie | $0.183 summarise | Summarise −29% | 1M → 1M context 512K → 131K max output |

## What this compares, and what it leaves out

 - Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.47 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked *tie* rather than an improvement — see [significance bands](/significance/).
 - 204 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
 - Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
 - Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
 - Models with no higher-scoring or cheaper alternative that is no worse on the other axis are on the [value frontier](/frontier/). Models with such an alternative are [listed here](/alternatives/).

## Continue your investigation

 - [Check requirements](/check/)
- [Compare exact differences](/compare/)
- [Set a quality floor](/cheapest-at/)
- [Inspect tier boundaries](/cliffs/)