Standard Compute
Model comparison 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs MiniMax M3

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · Budget · Open weights
$0.22/1M · 1.0M ctx
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · Balanced · Open weights
$0.57/1M · 1.0M ctx

Community vote

Pick a winner in each dimension. You can change your vote any time.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for money
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results: fewer refusals, loops and format breaks

Specs and pricing side by side

Spec
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
MiniMax M3
Maker
DeepSeek
MiniMax
Blended price / 1M
$0.22
$0.57
Input / output
$0.04 in · $0.63 out / 1M tokens
$0.30 in · $1.20 out / 1M tokens
Context window
1.0M
1.0M
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
8.8
8.4
Agentic Ability
8.8
8.7
Speed
9.4
7.8
Value for money
10.0
9.1
Reliability
8.8
8.6

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or MiniMax M3?

Updated 2026-10-13

Choose DeepSeek V4.1 Flash if you want cheap, high-volume open-weight agent work. Choose MiniMax M3 if you want open-weight autonomous agents that lean on tool use.

In our editorial scoring, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads in 5 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability, speed, value for money and reliability), while MiniMax M3 leads in 0. On price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash runs about $0.22 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; MiniMax M3 is about $0.57 and open-weight.

Where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash falls short
  • Well below the frontier on long agentic tasks
  • DeepSeek API prices differ between peak and off-peak hours
Full DeepSeek V4.1 Flash breakdown →
Where MiniMax M3 falls short
  • Below frontier on raw quality
  • Newer, less battle-tested than V3.2/GLM
Full MiniMax M3 breakdown →

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