Compare / Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs MiniMax M3
Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs MiniMax M3
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Qwen3.6 Max Preview or MiniMax M3? The short answer
- MiniMax M3 is cheaper: $0.52 against $2.31 per million tokens, 4.4 times less.
- They score about the same on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (28.4 and 29.2).
- On our business benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Max Preview ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts.
- On our business benchmarks, MiniMax M3 ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
At a glance
| Qwen3.6 Max Preview | MiniMax M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $1.03 in · $6.16 out | $0.30 in · $1.20 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $2.31 | $0.52 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.41 (CoreWeave, FP4) |
| Intelligence Index | 28.4 | 29.2 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 81 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | MiniMax M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 78 of 161 | 71 of 161 |
| Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects | not measured | 39 of 51 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 56 of 195 | 36 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 37 of 187 | 61 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 45 of 153 | 94 of 153 |
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | MiniMax M3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,452 | 1,434 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Business, management and financeArena rating | 1,450 | 1,450 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Creative writingArena rating | 1,436 | 1,406 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Expert promptsArena rating | 1,499 | 1,471 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Instruction followingArena rating | 1,449 | 1,435 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,460 | 1,440 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Writing, literature and languageArena rating | 1,446 | 1,422 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 28.4 | 29.2 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 88.8% | 92.9% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 30.8% | 39.0% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | IFBench% of instructions | 76.6% | 82.9% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 80.7% | 83.0% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks | 43.9% | 42.4% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Τ²-bench telecom% of tasks | 95.9% | 88.9% |
| Vending-Bench 2reported | Money after a yearUS dollars | $4,254.19 | $2,157.77 |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview better than MiniMax M3?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Qwen3.6 Max Preview ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts; MiniMax M3 ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 costs $0.52 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $2.31 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
Run Qwen3.6 Max Preview and MiniMax M3 on your own prompt
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