---
title: "Check MiniMax M3 — is it still the one to buy · Undominated.ai"
canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/minimax__minimax-m3/
description: "MiniMax M3: whether anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, as of Aug 28, 2026. Unrated stays unrated."
---

# Check MiniMax M3 — is it still the one to buy · Undominated.ai

> MiniMax M3: whether anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, as of Aug 28, 2026. Unrated stays unrated.

# Check a model

Name what you are paying for. The plot is the same Pareto field as the frontier page. The answer is a computation on this catalogue, not an opinion. Bookmark the URL.

9 undominated of 134 · Aug 28, 2026

As of Aug 28, 2026, Gemma 4 31B scores higher and costs less than MiniMax M3 for Balanced on LMArena, but it is not a drop-in. You would give up: context, max output.

 Current model

MiniMax M3

 Balanced

3 tokens in per 1 out

 Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic
 Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) 134 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase.

Gemma 4 31B scores higher and costs less, but you would give up: context, max output.

 [MiniMax M3](/models/minimax__minimax-m3/)

LMArena Elo

 **

1434.8

Effective $/M · Balanced

 **

$0.525/M

 [Gemma 4 31B](/models/google__gemma-4-31b-it/)

LMArena Elo

 **

1441.7

Effective $/M · Balanced

 **

$0.153/M

## Higher score, lower price, named losses

Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation.

| Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gemma 4 31B | 1441.7 | $0.153/M | context, max output |
| Hy3 | 1441.2 | $0.144/M | context, max output, image, video |

Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/)

This page does not mail you. The URL is the watch: same model, same mix, current catalogue.