Compare / Google vs MiniMax

AI labs compared · October 2026

Google vs MiniMax: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 21 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

16 models on sale with our resultsGoogle Best: Gemini 3.8 Flash · newest: Gemini 3.8 Flash
5 models on sale with our resultsMiniMax Best: MiniMax-M3 · newest: MiniMax-M3
Google wins 5MiniMax wins 0

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 5 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Google or MiniMax? The short answer

Google is ahead: its best models beat MiniMax's in all 5 kinds of work both are measured on.

  • Pick Google for agents and tool use, professional work, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
  • Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash is #8 on our overall leaderboard; no MiniMax model has enough of our results to be ranked there yet.
  • Prices start at $0.062 per million tokens for Google (Gemma 3 4B) and $0.52 for MiniMax (MiniMax-M3).

Head to head

40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash
Best Intelligence Index
29.2MiniMax-M3
$3.00Gemini 3.8 Flash
Flagship price, per million tokens
$0.52MiniMax-M3
$0.062Gemma 3 4B
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.52MiniMax-M3
16
Models on sale with our results
5

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live 8 of 20Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview not measured
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 12 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash not measured
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 5 of 8Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview not measured
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 7 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash not measured
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 29 of 164Gemini 3.7 Flash 74 of 164MiniMax-M3
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 11 of 51Gemini 3.8 Flash 39 of 51MiniMax-M3
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 12 of 198Gemini 3.8 Flash 38 of 198MiniMax-M3
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 2 of 188Gemini 3.8 Flash 66 of 188MiniMax-M3
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 1 of 152Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 95 of 152MiniMax-M3
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 2 of 22Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite not measured

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

GoogleMiniMax

01020304050 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Gemini 3.8 FlashGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGemini 3.7 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.5 FlashMiniMax-M3

On our overall leaderboard

The 3 of their models we rank overall: one score out of 100 across everything we publish (how the score works). Only models with enough of our own results are ranked.

  1. #8Gemini 3.8 Flash61
  2. #10Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview50
  3. #19Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite27

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

MeasureGoogleMiniMax
Agents and tool use
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better 62.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash · 7 of 3357.2%MiniMax-M3 · 13 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 19.7%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 23 of 1052.0%MiniMax-M3 · 44 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 87.6%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 8 of 11565.2%MiniMax-M3 · 37 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 45.8%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 10 of 11315.3%MiniMax-M3 · 55 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better $5,396Gemini 3.5 Flash · 22 of 56$2,158MiniMax-M3 · 39 of 56
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better 67.8%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 4 of 3737.7%MiniMax-M3 · 30 of 37
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash · 21 of 19829.2MiniMax-M3 · 50 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 47.9%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 19739.0%MiniMax-M3 · 41 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 95.3%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 2 of 18792.9%MiniMax-M3 · 14 of 187
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 3.3%Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite · 2 of 799.1%MiniMax-M2.5 · 34 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,477Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 1131,434MiniMax-M3 · 69 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,495Gemini 3.8 Flash · 6 of 1661,440MiniMax-M3 · 63 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 78.6Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1 of 13841.7MiniMax-M2.5 · 80 of 138

Quick answers

Is Google or MiniMax better?

Google is ahead: its best models beat MiniMax's in all 5 kinds of work both are measured on.

What is Google's best model?

Gemini 3.8 Flash: #8 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 40.9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is MiniMax's best model?

MiniMax-M3: 29.2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Google or MiniMax?

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.7 Flash, ranks 29 of 164 models on sale, against 74 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Google or MiniMax?

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.8 Flash, ranks 12 of 198 models on sale, against 38 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

Which is better for writing, Google or MiniMax?

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.8 Flash, ranks 2 of 188 models on sale, against 66 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

Which is cheaper, Google or MiniMax?

Google's cheapest model with results, Gemma 3 4B, costs $0.062 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.52 for MiniMax-M3 from MiniMax.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Google, MiniMax and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard