Compare / MiniMax M3 vs GPT-6 Luna

MiniMax M3 vs GPT-6 Luna

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 19 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

MiniMax M3
MiniMax · profile
GPT-6 Luna
OpenAI · profile
Results compared
19
Shared sources
3

MiniMax M3 or GPT-6 Luna? The short answer

  • GPT-6 Luna is cheaper: $0.20 against $0.52 per million tokens, 2.6 times less.
  • GPT-6 Luna scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 38.1 against 29.2.
  • GPT-6 Luna writes faster: 134 tokens a second against 81.
  • On our business benchmarks, MiniMax M3 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
  • On our business benchmarks, GPT-6 Luna ranks higher for agents and tool use, professional work and writing.

At a glance

MiniMax M3GPT-6 Luna
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $1.20 out$0.10 in · $0.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.52$0.20
Cheapest host, blended$0.41 (CoreWeave, FP4)$0.10 (OpenAI)
Intelligence Index29.238.1
Spring Prompt overall–41
Output speed, tokens a second81134
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,050,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

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 caseMiniMax M3GPT-6 Luna
Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live not measured 5 of 19
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 7 of 18
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 3 of 18
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 71 of 161 39 of 161
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 39 of 51 25 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 36 of 195 39 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 61 of 187 58 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 94 of 153 95 of 153
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 15 of 21

From our research

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricMiniMax M3GPT-6 Luna
APEX-AgentsreportedTasks passed% of tasks 37.7%44.3%
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedConfirmed task successIPS effect estimate -0.140.05
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedPraise over complaintIPS effect estimate -0.13-0.03
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedSteerabilityIPS effect estimate -0.070.02
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedTool groundingIPS effect estimate -0.000.00
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4341,422
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4501,452
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,4061,403
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4711,505
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4351,443
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4401,442
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4221,415
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 29.238.1
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 39.0%38.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 83.0%83.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedOutput speedtokens per second 80.6134
Artificial AnalysisreportedSciCode% of problems 47.1%54.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks 2.0%12.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTime to first answer tokenseconds 25.90.82

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 MiniMax M3 better than GPT-6 Luna?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, MiniMax M3 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts; GPT-6 Luna ranks higher for agents and tool use, professional work and writing.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or GPT-6 Luna?

GPT-6 Luna costs $0.20 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.52 for MiniMax M3.

Which is faster, MiniMax M3 or GPT-6 Luna?

GPT-6 Luna writes about 134 tokens a second on its usual API, against 81 for MiniMax M3 (Artificial Analysis).

Run MiniMax M3 and GPT-6 Luna on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.