Standard Compute
Model comparison 2026

Gemini 3.8 Flash vs MiniMax M3

Gemini 3.8 Flash
Google · Balanced · Proprietary
$1.65/1M · 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash
MiniMax M3
Maker
Google
MiniMax
Blended price / 1M
$1.65
$0.57
Input / output
$0.75 in · $3.75 out / 1M tokens
$0.30 in · $1.20 out / 1M tokens
Context window
1.0M
1.0M
Open weights
No
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
9.1
8.4
Agentic Ability
8.9
8.7
Speed
9.2
7.8
Value for money
8.8
9.1
Reliability
8.9
8.6

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

Verdict: Gemini 3.8 Flash or MiniMax M3?

Updated 2026-10-13

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash if you want high-throughput agents and Gemini CLI users who want speed and big context. Choose MiniMax M3 if you want open-weight autonomous agents that lean on tool use.

In our editorial scoring, Gemini 3.8 Flash leads in 4 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability, speed and reliability), while MiniMax M3 leads in 1. On price, Gemini 3.8 Flash runs about $1.65 per 1M tokens (blended) and is proprietary; MiniMax M3 is about $0.57 and open-weight.

Where Gemini 3.8 Flash falls short
  • Price doubles to $1.50/$7.50 on January 1, 2027
  • Weak on long terminal tasks (19.1% on Terminal-Bench 4.0)
Full Gemini 3.8 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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