Model comparison
MiniMax-M3 vs Qwen3.6 Flash
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 9 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 9 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen3.6 Flash in 0 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 42.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 71.1% for MiniMax-M3 and 84.4% for Qwen3.6 Flash.
- Qwen3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.19 / $1.13 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M3.
- MiniMax-M3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 43.8 | 38.8 |
| Released | 2026-06-01 | 2026-04-27 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 512K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.19 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $1.13 |
| Results tracked | 41 | 13 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| ALE-Bench | 640.02 | 326.4 |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | — |
| SciCode | 47.1% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1469 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 37.7% | — |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 2,158 | — |
Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87), Qwen3.6 Flash: 29.0 (#96)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | 35.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | 14% | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 8% | 18% |
| DTBench | 78.9% | 77.1% |
| LMCA | 33.7% | 31% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.95 | 143.26 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 65.1% | — |
| CritPt | 3.7% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1447 | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55% | — |
| ForecastBench | 61.4 | — |
Math MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95), Qwen3.6 Flash: 39.0 (#117)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | 84.4% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 22.5% |
| ProofBench | 18% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1429 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 10.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 0% |
Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads
MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35), Qwen3.6 Flash: 42.1 (#100)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | 83.3% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 15.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1461 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1253 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1420 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1463 | — |
| LMArena French | 1447 | — |
| LMArena German | 1426 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1381 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1372 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1428 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1432 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1433 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1433 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1150 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1442 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M3 better than Qwen3.6 Flash?
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.8 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M3 or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Qwen3.6 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.19 per million input tokens and $1.13 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M3 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Qwen3.6 Flash share?
9 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Flash has 13.