Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude 4 Sonnet
50
MiniMax M3
76
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude 4 Sonnet unranked · MiniMax M3 #12
Pick MiniMax M3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority.
Coding
+5.7 difference
Claude 4 Sonnet
MiniMax M3
$3 / $15
$0.3 / $1.2
40 t/s
N/A
1.33s
N/A
200K
1M
Pick MiniMax M3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority.
MiniMax M3 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 76 to 50. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude 4 Sonnet is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.30 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens for MiniMax M3. That is roughly 12.5x on output cost alone. MiniMax M3 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude 4 Sonnet.
MiniMax M3 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 76 to 50. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 72.7% and 80.5%.
Claude 4 Sonnet has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 72.7 versus 67. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
For engineers, researchers, and the plain curious — a weekly brief on new models, ranking shifts, and pricing changes.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.