Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 59.0 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs 2.5x less per output token ($0.60 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 7 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3.1 Flash: which to pick
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding: it scores 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview.
Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens).
- Shared results
- 7
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only
- 73
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash only
- 13
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash scores 59.0 against 22.7.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads, 42.7 against 15.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.6.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a GPQA Diamond result, 81.1%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a AIME result, 83.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a MMLU Pro result, 86.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a Design Arena: websites result, 1082.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash has a Vals Index result, 53.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $0.0010, MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has the number, $0.18.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, MiniMax M3.1 Flash 59.0 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 55.6 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 0.0% against MiniMax M3.1 Flash 73.9%, 73.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.60 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview takes 1.05M tokens, MiniMax M3.1 Flash 1M.
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.
| Category | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Bars | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 83.9% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1257 | 1587 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| AA Coding Index | 34.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 62.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.3% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 73.9% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 34.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 53.4% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| ALE-Bench | 797.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1400 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1413 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1245 | 1609 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1276 | 1529 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1336 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SciCode | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 42.7 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 72.7% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 92.0% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 34.7% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 30.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 3.1% | 32.1% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 3.4% | 34.1% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.5% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 8.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 82.9% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 82.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 48.0% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1407 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1398 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1403 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1242 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1271 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1417 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 59.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 47.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1425 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1418 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1389 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 51.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1082 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1069 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1029 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1045 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1047 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1071 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1052 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1167 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 74.0% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 53.8% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 71.4% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 49.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 63.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 41.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 79.7% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | 1416 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1377 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1401 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1414 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1410 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1460 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1430 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1413 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1392 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1424 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1421 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1420 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1417 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1394 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1408 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1386 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1232 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1278 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1246 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1266 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1259 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1308 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1248 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MultiChallenge | 60.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash 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.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 3, 2026 | October 19, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | 22.7 | 59.0 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.18 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding?
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding: it scores 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview. Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash comparison based on?
7 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 M3.1 Flash's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.