Enter opens the highlighted result. Esc closes.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3

MiniMax M3 leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 39.2 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 1.3x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 73 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview Replace MiniMax M3
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle
Coding
22.7
Overall
36.6
Output $/M
$1.50
13
MiniMax M3MiniMax
Coding
39.2
Overall
51.7
Output $/M
$1.20
60
vs boards won of 73 shared

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3: which to pick

Pick MiniMax M3 for coding: it scores 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview.

Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.56) and work measured by ALE-Bench or MMMU Pro (Vals AI), where it leads.

Model AGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle22.7/1003 independent benchmarks$0.18 per solved taskModel BMiniMax M3MiniMax39.2/1006 independent benchmarks$0.56 per solved task
Shared results
73
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only
6
MiniMax M3 only
43
Like-for-like categories
8 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, MiniMax M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category
Agentic work, 25.8 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 0.0% against MiniMax M3 47.6%, 47.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against MiniMax M3 $1.20 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
Context window
Both take 1.05M tokens.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewBarsMiniMax M3Ties
Coding112
Intelligence01
Agentic work05
Reasoning25
Math02
Knowledge28
Web design17
General720
All shared boards1360
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index112
Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
LiveBench codingNot measured70.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDev12571482MiniMax M3
AA Coding Index34.758.6MiniMax M3
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)80.1%82.2%MiniMax M3
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)62.8%75.0%MiniMax M3
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured1.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)0.0%47.6%MiniMax M3
Code migration (Vals AI)4.6%19.9%MiniMax M3
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)34.1%53.6%MiniMax M3
SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI)Not measured33.3%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)Not measured9.2%Only MiniMax M3 measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured51.5%Only MiniMax M3 measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured65.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
SciCodeNot measured47.1%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured42.4%Only MiniMax M3 measured
FrontierCodeNot measured14.7%Only MiniMax M3 measured
ALE-Bench797.7640.0Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: coding14001470MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: software and IT14131466MiniMax M3
LMArena WebDev: React12451478MiniMax M3
LMArena WebDev: HTML12761455MiniMax M3
LMArena WebDev: from an image13361470MiniMax M3
SciCode4.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AA Intelligence Index15.629.2MiniMax M3
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured146.9Only MiniMax M3 measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AA Agentic Index1.629.5MiniMax M3
Design Arena: agents building web appsNot measured1200Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack appsNot measured1197Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile appsNot measured1169Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android appsNot measured1159Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building gamesNot measured1158Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: HTML slidesNot measured1130Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slidesNot measured1181Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheetsNot measured1028Only MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench researchNot measured68.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench browserNot measured8.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench long agenticNot measured12.4%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)30.0%48.3%MiniMax M3
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)3.1%20.6%MiniMax M3
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)3.4%29.8%MiniMax M3
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)8.6%47.8%MiniMax M3
τ²-Bench TelecomNot measured88.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
APEX-AgentsNot measured37.7%Only MiniMax M3 measured
OSWorld 2.0Not measured4.6%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Vending-Bench 2Not measured$2,158Only MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index25
Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
GPQA Diamond81.1%92.7%MiniMax M3
LiveBench reasoningNot measured74.5%Only MiniMax M3 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)82.5%81.2%Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured92.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured39.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)Not measured90.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
SimpleBenchNot measured45.8%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Chess puzzlesNot measured13.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Mystery game puzzlesNot measured8.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14071447MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: expert13981461MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14031455MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: diagrams12421266MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: homework12711268Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Math benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AIME83.3%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
OTIS Mock AIMENot measured71.1%Only MiniMax M3 measured
ProofBenchNot measured18.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: math14281429MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: mathematical work14171448MiniMax M3
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index28
Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
MMLU Pro86.2%84.2%Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LegalBench (Vals AI)83.8%85.4%MiniMax M3
CaseLaw (Vals AI)55.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)59.4%68.1%MiniMax M3
TaxEval (Vals AI)71.8%72.7%MiniMax M3
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.0%68.4%MiniMax M3
MedCode (Vals AI)47.6%46.3%Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: science14251452MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14281441MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: legal and government14181437MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: business and finance13891434MiniMax M3
FACTS Benchmark Suite51.4%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17
Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
Design Arena: websites10821257MiniMax M3
Design Arena: UI components10691242MiniMax M3
Design Arena: game dev10291210MiniMax M3
Design Arena: data viz10451236MiniMax M3
Design Arena: 3D10471208MiniMax M3
Design Arena: all code categories10721247MiniMax M3
Design Arena: SVG10521161MiniMax M3
Design Arena: ASCII art11671161Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LiveBench designNot measured66.2%Only MiniMax M3 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index720
General benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
LiveBench data analysisNot measured76.2%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured64.1%Only MiniMax M3 measured
SAGE (Vals AI)49.5%50.6%MiniMax M3
MedScribe (Vals AI)63.9%87.3%MiniMax M3
Vals Multimodal Index41.4%60.0%MiniMax M3
IFBenchNot measured82.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)Not measured83.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
DTBenchNot measured78.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMCANot measured33.7%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Surface Evolver BenchNot measured55.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text14161433MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: instruction following13771433MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: creative writing14011404MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision12401251MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: English14141443MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: non-English14101420MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: Chinese14601466MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: German14301428Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: Japanese14131380Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: Korean13921373Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: French14241444MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: Spanish14211433MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: Russian14201426MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: Polish14431423Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Text: multi-turn14171443MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: longer queries13941446MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: writing and language14081419MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: entertainment and media13861403MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: English12321263MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: Chinese12781311MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: reading text12461259MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: humor12661235Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Vision: captioning1259Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things13081197Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena Vision: creative writing12481234Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
LMArena DocumentNot measured1435Only MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.0010Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.0009Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.017Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.019Fits in one request

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.065Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.072Fits in one request

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and MiniMax M3
SpecificationGoogle Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewMiniMax M3
MakerGoogleMiniMax
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedMarch 3, 2026May 31, 2026
Context window1.05M1.05M
Input $/Mtok$0.25$0.30
Output $/Mtok$1.50$1.20
Coding index22.739.2
Independent measurements behind it36
Cost per solved task$0.18$0.56
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than MiniMax M3 for coding?

Pick MiniMax M3 for coding: it scores 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview. Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.56) and work measured by ALE-Bench or MMMU Pro (Vals AI), where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.18 and MiniMax M3 $0.56.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3?

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3 comparison based on?

73 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M3's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

Compare next

Embed this comparison on your site

Free under CC BY 4.0, while the source link stays visible. Preview the frame · Terms and other embeds

<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview-vs-minimax-minimax-m3" title="Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview-vs-minimax-minimax-m3">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3</a></p>