Model comparison

Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax-M2.5

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 38.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.5 costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3 Flash Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 29 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3 Flash Preview

Google

52.3

Rank #40 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax

38.3

Rank #188 Confirmed

Summary

They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2.5 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads 49.2 to 17.5.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 83.1% for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and 16.8% for MiniMax-M2.5.
MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
MiniMax-M2.5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax-M2.5 specifications
	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
Provider	Google	MiniMax
Noometry Index	52.3	38.3
Released	2025-12-17	2026-02-12
Weights	Proprietary	Open
Context window	1.05M	205K
Max output	66K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.50	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$3	$1.20
Results tracked	59	33

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 50.9 (#42), MiniMax-M2.5: 48.1 (#58)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	75.8%	75.8%
LMArena WebDev	1439	1387
SWE-bench Multilingual	72.7%	68.3%
LMArena Coding	1460	1381
ALE-Bench	1,367	618.17
SWE-bench Verified	75.4%	—
GSO	9.8%	—
WeirdML	61.6%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.7 (#29), MiniMax-M2.5: 30.4 (#77)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
Terminal-Bench	64.3%	42.7%
Vending-Bench 2	3,635	-23.16
τ²-bench Airline	82.5%	—
τ²-bench Banking	27.3%	—
τ²-bench Retail	76.8%	—
τ²-bench Telecom	91.2%	—
DeepResearch Bench	49.8%	—
BALROG	48.1%	—
GDP.pdf	10%	—
LMArena Search	1198	—

Reasoning Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 49.2 (#37), MiniMax-M2.5: 17.5 (#292)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
ARC-AGI-2	33.6%	4.9%
NYT Connections (extended)	83.1%	16.8%
ARC-AGI-1	84.7%	63.7%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1465	1372
Epoch Capabilities Index	151.8	146.68
SimpleBench	61.1%	—
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	55.2%
Chess Puzzles	40%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	26%	—
DTBench	89.1%	—
LMCA	43.1%	—
ForecastBench	58.5	—

Math Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.7 (#55), MiniMax-M2.5: 26.9 (#253)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
ProofBench	15%	4%
LMArena Math	1473	1378
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	51.2%	—
FrontierMath Tier 4	17.1%	—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions	67.6%	—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	95.6%	—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)	35.6%	—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)	4.2%	—

Knowledge Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 58.8 (#33), MiniMax-M2.5: 39.2 (#135)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
Vectara Hallucination Rate	13.5%	9.1%
LMArena Expert	1462	1379
GPQA Diamond	89.4%	—
SimpleQA Verified	66.8%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.5 (#16), MiniMax-M2.5: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Vision	1285	—
GeoBench	88%	—
VPCT	72.6%	—
Blueprint-Bench 2	0%	—
LMArena Document	1413	—

Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.7 (#27), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.1 (#152)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Non-English	1458	1338
LMArena Chinese	1511	1393
LMArena French	1477	1362
LMArena German	1497	1362
LMArena Japanese	1489	1171
LMArena Korean	1443	1232
LMArena Russian	1480	1358
LMArena Spanish	1469	1354

Instruction Following Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 75.7 (#56), MiniMax-M2.5: 71.5 (#148)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Instruction Following	1437	1353

Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#67), MiniMax-M2.5: 37.5 (#216)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Longer Query	1452	1366
CL-bench	—	11.4%
CL-bench Life	—	6.3%

Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.5 (#45), MiniMax-M2.5: 53.9 (#153)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Text	1466	1359
LMArena Creative Writing	1457	1331
LMArena Multi-Turn	1471	1364
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	—	1361

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than MiniMax-M2.5?

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3 Flash Preview lists at $0.50 and $3.

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax-M2.5 better for coding?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 48.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax-M2.5 share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.5 has 33.