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MiniMax M3 vs Pareto 26.9

Decision reading

At least one model is not scored in the current public ranking lane, so the page does not name an overall quality winner.

1 results are shared. Category rows resting on Estimated evidence or different benchmark sets are marked directional and do not name a winner.

MiniMax logo
Model A
MiniMax M3

MiniMax

61.25/100

Supported · Public rank #57

90% interval 52.270.3

Model B
Pareto 26.9

Unbiased

Evidence status unavailable

90% interval unavailable

Updated September 18, 2026. We do not rank this pair: at least one has no public score. Public scores include evidence status and uncertainty.

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Which one for your work

Recommendations appear only when a shared evidence basis or an explicit operating constraint supports the call. Secondary and unsupported use cases stay disclosed below the initial list.

  • Chat turn cost

    1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

    MiniMax M3

    MiniMax M3 has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates

  • Cache-heavy agent loop cost

    200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

    MiniMax M3

    MiniMax M3 has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates

Show secondary and unsupported calls
  • Repository review cost

    50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

    MiniMax M3

    MiniMax M3 has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates

  • Coding work

    Code generation, repair, and software-engineering tasks

    Not enough matched evidence

    Pareto 26.9 is not ranked on the public lane for coding, so no winner is named for coding.

    Confidence: limited

  • Agentic work

    Tool use, computer use, and multi-step task completion

    Not enough matched evidence

    Pareto 26.9 is not ranked on the public lane for agentic, so no winner is named for agentic.

    Confidence: limited

  • Long documents

    Prompts that approach the documented context limit

    Not enough matched evidence

    A complete context comparison is not sourced.

    Confidence: limited

What is actually comparable

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results present for only one model describe coverage, not superiority.

Shared results
1
MiniMax M3 only
26
Pareto 26.9 only
3
Like-for-like categories
0 / 8

Category results, on a stated basis

Each row shows the public-lane category score for both models: the BenchAlign lane for agentic, coding, and knowledge, and the weighted public rows elsewhere, with the same rank each model page reports. A row is like-for-like only when both scores rest on Supported evidence or the same weighted set. Directional and not-comparable rows remain visible, but they never receive a winner.

Agentic

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
42.0
Supported · #112/154
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 9 vs 1 public rows
Reading
Not comparable

Coding

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
48.6
Estimated · #69/154
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 10 vs 1 public rows
Reading
Not comparable

Reasoning

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
78.0
#4/20
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Knowledge

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
53.0
Supported · #65/184
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 2 vs 1 public rows
Reading
Not comparable

Math

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
Not ranked
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 1 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multilingual

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
Not ranked
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multimodal

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
52.1
#34/48
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 2 vs 1 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Instruction following

Not comparable
MiniMax M3
92.4
#4/124
Pareto 26.9
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Ranks count the models scored in each category’s lane, so the agentic, coding, and knowledge denominators (BenchAlign) differ from the provisional-lane categories. Unranked scores sit on the lane’s scale but never name a winner. Like-for-like rows within 0.5 points read as a practical tie.

Shape of the matched evidence

Only shared public evidence is shown. Sparse evidence stays a ruled list rather than being closed into a radar shape.

Too few matched category axes support a radar. The ruled list below shows only shared benchmark results; positions use each benchmark’s normalized display scale when available.

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes turn per-token rates into comparable decisions. Each scenario states context fit and whether cached input had to fall back to the published list-input rate.

Chat turn

1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

MiniMax M3
$0.0009
Fits in one request
Pareto 26.9
$0.00625
Fit state unavailable

MiniMax M3 has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Repository review

50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

MiniMax M3
$0.0186
Fits in one request
Pareto 26.9
$0.1475
Fit state unavailable

MiniMax M3 has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Cache-heavy agent loop

200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

MiniMax M3
$0.03
Fits in one request
Pareto 26.9
$0.175
Fit state unavailable

MiniMax M3 has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Specification differences

Sourced differences are shown directly. Missing facts stay explicit instead of being inferred from a model name or family.

Context window

Maximum documented context; output-token limits may be lower.

MiniMax M3

1M

Pareto 26.9

N/A

Cached-input rate

A missing cached-input rate falls back to the listed input rate only in the stated workload estimate.

MiniMax M3

$0.06 per 1M cached input tokens

Pareto 26.9

$0.25 per 1M cached input tokens

Unbiased pricing

Documented inputs

MiniMax M3

Not sourced

Pareto 26.9

Not sourced

Documented outputs

MiniMax M3

Not sourced

Pareto 26.9

Not sourced

Provider availability

MiniMax M3

Not sourced

Pareto 26.9

Not sourced

Reasoning profile

MiniMax M3

Non-Reasoning

Pareto 26.9

Reasoning

Weight access

MiniMax M3

Open Weight

Pareto 26.9

Proprietary

License

MiniMax M3

Open Weight

Pareto 26.9

Proprietary

Release date

MiniMax M3

2026-06-01

Pareto 26.9

2026-09-17

If you already use one of these models
Deployment change
The models list different providers, so authentication, endpoint behavior, limits, and feature support may change.
Quality signal
At least one model is not scored in the current public ranking lane, so the page does not name an overall quality winner.
Workload cost
Repository review: $0.0186 vs $0.1475. Cache-heavy agent loop: $0.03 vs $0.175.
Context tradeoff
A complete documented context comparison is not available.

Run the same representative tasks against both endpoints before changing production traffic.

Benchmark evidence

The full public result ledger is available for audit without forcing a wide desktop table onto a phone.

Browse raw public benchmark evidence30 rows

Agentic

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    MiniMax M366%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • BrowseComp

    MiniMax M383.5%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • OSWorld-Verified

    MiniMax M370.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • MCP Atlas

    MiniMax M374.2%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • Claw-Eval

    MiniMax M374.5%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • BankerToolBench

    MiniMax M376.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • ResearchClawBench

    MiniMax M319.8%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • OSWorld 2.0

    MiniMax M34.6%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)

    MiniMax M353.6%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 4.0

    MiniMax M3
    Pareto 26.951.00%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Coding

  • SWE-bench Verified

    MiniMax M380.5%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench Pro

    MiniMax M359%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    MiniMax M366.0%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • NL2Repo

    MiniMax M342.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • VIBE V2

    MiniMax M350.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • SVG-Bench

    MiniMax M363.7%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • KernelBench Hard

    MiniMax M328.8%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • OpenHarmony Bench

    MiniMax M348.4%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • LiveCodeBench (Vals)

    MiniMax M382.2%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench (Vals)

    MiniMax M375.0%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • DeepSWE

    MiniMax M3
    Pareto 26.974.0%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Knowledge

  • GPQA Diamond (Vals)

    MiniMax M392.7%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • MMLU-Pro (Vals)

    MiniMax M384.2%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • HLE w/o tools

    MiniMax M3
    Pareto 26.949%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Math

  • USAMO 2026

    MiniMax M385.7%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

Multimodal

  • OfficeQA Pro

    MiniMax M345.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • OmniDocBench 1.5

    MiniMax M391.6%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • MMMU-Pro

    MiniMax M378.1%
    Source
    Pareto 26.978%
    Source

    MiniMax M3 leads this result

  • VideoMMMU

    MiniMax M384.6%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

  • Video-MME (with subtitle)

    MiniMax M385.4%
    Source
    Pareto 26.9

    Not directly comparable

Questions

Which is better, MiniMax M3 or Pareto 26.9?

At least one model is not scored in the current public ranking lane, so the page does not name an overall quality winner. The page therefore keeps the decision tied to the specific documented workload.

Which is better for coding, MiniMax M3 or Pareto 26.9?

Pareto 26.9 is not ranked on the public lane for coding, so no winner is named for coding.

Which is better for agentic tasks, MiniMax M3 or Pareto 26.9?

Pareto 26.9 is not ranked on the public lane for agentic tasks, so no winner is named for agentic tasks.

Which costs less, MiniMax M3 or Pareto 26.9?

For the stated presets, chat costs $0.0009 on MiniMax M3 and $0.00625 on Pareto 26.9; repository review costs $0.0186 and $0.1475; the cache-heavy agent loop costs $0.03 and $0.175. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Pareto 26.9?

A complete documented context-window comparison is not available.

Related comparisons

Last updated September 18, 2026

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