Standard Compute
Model Comparison 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs MiniMax M3

DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek · Budget · Open weights
$0.18/1M · 1.0M ctx
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · Balanced · Open weights
$0.57/1M · 1.0M ctx

Community Vote

Pick a winner in each dimension — change your vote anytime.

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 $
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results — fewer refusals, loops, and format breaks

Specs & Pricing, Side by Side

Spec
DeepSeek V4 Flash
MiniMax M3
Maker
DeepSeek
MiniMax
Blended price / 1M
$0.18
$0.57
Input / output
$0.14 in · $0.28 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
8.2
8.4
Agentic Ability
8.1
8.7
Speed
9.0
7.8
Value for $
10.0
9.1
Reliability
8.9
8.6

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

Verdict: DeepSeek V4 Flash or MiniMax M3?

Updated 2026-08-02

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

In our editorial scoring, DeepSeek V4 Flash leads in 3 of five dimensions (speed, value for $ and reliability), while MiniMax M3 leads in 2. On price, DeepSeek V4 Flash runs about $0.18 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; MiniMax M3 is about $0.57 and open-weight.

Where DeepSeek V4 Flash falls short
  • Not for the hardest tasks
  • Quality below V4 Pro
Full DeepSeek V4 Flash breakdown →
Where MiniMax M3 falls short
  • Below frontier on raw quality
  • Newer, less battle-tested than V3.2/GLM
Full MiniMax M3 breakdown →

The model is half the story — the agent is the other half

The model picks the moves; the agent runs the loop, the tools, and the guardrails. Once you've chosen a model, see which agent gets the most out of it.

Compare AI agents →

Every model on this page is included with Standard Compute

Standard Compute

Current frontier models Claude Fable 5 · GPT-5.6 Sol

Your agents never stop.
Your bill never grows.

Frontier models when it counts. Efficient models when it doesn’t. No usage limits. One flat bill.

Free trial · no card · plans from $39/mo

Free trial No credit card needed Billing by Stripe2,500+ agent users

Related comparisons

Sonnet 4.6 vs MiniMax M3Terra vs MiniMax M3GPT-5.4 vs MiniMax M3Gemini 3.5 Flash vs MiniMax M3GPT-5.3-Codex vs MiniMax M3Kimi K2.7 Code vs MiniMax M3MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.7 PlusDevstral 2 vs MiniMax M3