Compare / MiniMax vs OpenAI

AI labs compared · October 2026

MiniMax vs OpenAI: 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. 32 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

5 models on sale with our resultsMiniMax Best: MiniMax-M3 · newest: MiniMax-M3
27 models on sale with our resultsOpenAI Best: GPT-6.1 Sol · newest: GPT-6.1 Sol
MiniMax wins 0OpenAI wins 5

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.

MiniMax or OpenAI? The short answer

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

  • Pick OpenAI for agents and tool use, professional work, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
  • OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol is #2 on our overall leaderboard; no MiniMax model has enough of our results to be ranked there yet.
  • Prices start at $0.52 per million tokens for MiniMax (MiniMax-M3) and $0.060 for OpenAI (gpt-oss-20b).

Head to head

29.2MiniMax-M3
Best Intelligence Index
52.7GPT-6 Astra
$0.52MiniMax-M3
Flagship price, per million tokens
$4.00GPT-6.1 Sol
$0.52MiniMax-M3
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.060gpt-oss-20b
5
Models on sale with our results
27

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 not measured 1 of 20GPT-6 Astra
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 1 of 19GPT-6 Astra
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled not measured 1 of 8GPT-6.1 Sol
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 1 of 19GPT-6 Astra
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 74 of 164MiniMax-M3 3 of 164GPT-6.1 Sol
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 39 of 51MiniMax-M3 1 of 51GPT-5.6 Sol
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 38 of 198MiniMax-M3 3 of 198GPT-6 Astra
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 66 of 188MiniMax-M3 14 of 188GPT-5.5
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 95 of 152MiniMax-M3 18 of 152GPT-6.1 Sol
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 10 of 22GPT-6 Sol

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.

MiniMaxOpenAI

0204060 $0.01$0.1$1$10$100 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index GPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 AstraGPT-6 SolGPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 TerraGPT-5.4

On our overall leaderboard

The 4 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. #2GPT-6.1 Sol81
  2. #3GPT-6 Astra79
  3. #4GPT-6 Sol69
  4. #15GPT-6 Luna40

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.

MeasureMiniMaxOpenAI
Agents and tool use
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better 57.2%MiniMax-M3 · 13 of 3365.9%GPT-5.5 · 5 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 2.0%MiniMax-M3 · 44 of 10559.6%GPT-6 Astra · 2 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 65.2%MiniMax-M3 · 37 of 11589.9%GPT-6 Astra · 2 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 15.3%MiniMax-M3 · 55 of 11344.3%GPT-5.6 Sol · 12 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better $2,158MiniMax-M3 · 39 of 56$15,515GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 56
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better 37.7%MiniMax-M3 · 30 of 3764.7%GPT-6 Astra · 7 of 37
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 29.2MiniMax-M3 · 50 of 19852.7GPT-6 Astra · 4 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 39.0%MiniMax-M3 · 41 of 19754.7%GPT-6 Astra · 6 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 92.9%MiniMax-M3 · 14 of 18796.3%GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 187
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 9.1%MiniMax-M2.5 · 34 of 793.1%GPT-5.4 nano · 1 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,434MiniMax-M3 · 69 of 1131,486GPT-5.5 · 5 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,440MiniMax-M3 · 63 of 1661,484GPT-5.6 Sol · 14 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 41.7MiniMax-M2.5 · 80 of 13869.7GPT-5.5 · 11 of 138

Quick answers

Is MiniMax or OpenAI better?

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

What is MiniMax's best model?

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

What is OpenAI's best model?

GPT-6.1 Sol: #2 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 51.8 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

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

OpenAI: its best model there, GPT-6.1 Sol, ranks 3 of 164 models on sale, against 74 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

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

OpenAI: its best model there, GPT-6 Astra, ranks 3 of 198 models on sale, against 38 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

Which is better for writing, MiniMax or OpenAI?

OpenAI: its best model there, GPT-5.5, ranks 14 of 188 models on sale, against 66 for MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax or OpenAI?

OpenAI's cheapest model with results, gpt-oss-20b, costs $0.060 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 MiniMax, OpenAI and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard