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MAI-Thinking-1 vs o3-mini

Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

MAI-Thinking-1

65

VS

o3-mini

55

1 categoriesvs2 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: MAI-Thinking-1 #23 · o3-mini unranked

Pick MAI-Thinking-1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

MAI-Thinking-1
71vs49.3

+21.7 difference

Knowledge

o3-mini
69.9vs77.2

+7.3 difference

Inst. Following

o3-mini
85vs93.9

+8.9 difference

Operational Comparison

MAI-Thinking-1

o3-mini

Price (per 1M tokens)

N/A

$1.1 / $4.4

Speed

N/A

160 t/s

Latency (TTFT)

N/A

7.12s

Context Window

256K

200K

Quick Verdict

Pick MAI-Thinking-1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority.

MAI-Thinking-1 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 65 to 55. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

MAI-Thinking-1's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 71 against 49.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 73.5% to 49.3%. o3-mini does hit back in instruction following, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

MAI-Thinking-1 gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 200K for o3-mini.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, MAI-Thinking-1 or o3-mini?

MAI-Thinking-1 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 65 to 55. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 73.5% and 49.3%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, MAI-Thinking-1 or o3-mini?

o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.2 versus 69.9. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, MAI-Thinking-1 or o3-mini?

MAI-Thinking-1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 71 versus 49.3. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, MAI-Thinking-1 or o3-mini?

o3-mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 85. MAI-Thinking-1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

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Last updated: June 8, 2026

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