Grok 4.5 vs MiniMax M3
Head-to-head comparison across 2benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Verdict
Grok 4.5 leads for most workloads.
- MiniMax M3 is ~6.7× cheaper on input tokens — the budget pick.
Based on BenchLM composite scores, July 2026.
Grok 4.5
75
MiniMax M3
72
Verified leaderboard positions: Grok 4.5 unranked · MiniMax M3 #21
Pick Grok 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MiniMax M3 only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Category Radar
Head-to-Head by Category
Category Breakdown
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | Δ | MiniMax M3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic | 83.3 | ← 11.0 | 72.3 |
| Coding | 64.7 | → 2.3 | 67.0 |
| Math | — | — | 85.7 |
| Multimodal | — | — | 64.9 |
Operational Comparison
Grok 4.5
MiniMax M3
$2 / $6
$0.3 / $1.2
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
500K
1M
Quick Verdict
Pick Grok 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MiniMax M3 only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Grok 4.5 has the cleaner provisional overall profile here, landing at 75 versus 72. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.
Grok 4.5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 83.3 against 72.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 83.3% to 66%. MiniMax M3 does hit back in coding, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Grok 4.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.30 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens for MiniMax M3. That is roughly 5.0x on output cost alone. Grok 4.5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while MiniMax M3 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. MiniMax M3 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 500K for Grok 4.5.
Benchmark Deep Dive
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3?
Grok 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 75 to 72. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 83.3% and 66%.
Which is better for coding, Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 67 versus 64.7. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for agentic tasks, Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3?
Grok 4.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.3 versus 72.3. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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