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Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M2.1

Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads MiniMax M2.1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 26.3 to 20.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 30 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3 Flash Preview Replace MiniMax M2.1
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle
Coding
43.7
Overall
55.0
Output $/M
$3.00
25
MiniMax M2.1MiniMax
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$1.20
4
vs boards won of 30 shared, 1 tied

Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick

Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a coding score, 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by τ²-Bench Telecom or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.

Model AGemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle43.7/1002 independent benchmarks$0.37 per solved taskModel BMiniMax M2.1MiniMaxNot benchmarked1 independent benchmark$0.59 per solved task
Shared results
30
Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
41
MiniMax M2.1 only
4
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 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
Widest category
Math, 13.0 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Terminal-Bench: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 64.3% against MiniMax M2.1 36.6%, 27.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
Context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens, MiniMax M2.1 205K.

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 Flash PreviewBarsMiniMax M2.1Ties
Coding60
Intelligence10
Agentic work01
Reasoning30
Math40
Knowledge701 tie
Web design22
General21
All shared boards2541 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index60
Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
SWE-bench Verified75.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)85.6%81.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)75.0%74.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)20.2%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Code migration (Vals AI)6.4%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.9%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)90.8%81.0%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)38.6%28.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Terminal-Bench64.3%36.6%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
GSO-Bench9.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
WeirdML61.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ALE-Bench1367.2623.8Gemini 3 Flash Preview
SciCode12.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
AA Intelligence Index26.320.9Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
Design Arena: agents building web apps1111Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1063Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1090Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1051Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1161Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1036Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)42.5%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)11.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)18.3%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)26.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
τ²-Bench Telecom80.4%85.4%MiniMax M2.1
BALROG48.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
DeepResearch Bench49.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Vending-Bench 2$3,635Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
GPQA Diamond87.9%78.5%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)87.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)89.8%83.0%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)36.6%23.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)89.4%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ARC-AGI84.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ARC-AGI-233.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
SimpleBench61.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Chess puzzles39.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Mystery game puzzles26.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
VPCT72.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
Math benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
AIME95.6%77.9%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MATH 500 (Vals AI)Not measured89.0%Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
MGSM (Vals AI)93.3%87.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
AA Math Index97.082.7Gemini 3 Flash Preview
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)97.0%82.7%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
OTIS Mock AIME95.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 351.2%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
FrontierMath, tier 417.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ProofBench15.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
MMLU Pro88.6%87.0%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
LegalBench (Vals AI)86.9%75.5%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
CaseLaw (Vals AI)55.8%55.8%Tie
CorpFin (Vals AI)66.4%58.9%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
TaxEval (Vals AI)73.9%66.3%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
MedQA (Vals AI)95.8%91.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MedCode (Vals AI)55.9%34.1%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)89.0%87.5%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
SimpleQA Verified66.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
GeoBench88.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
FACTS Benchmark Suite63.4%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash 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 index22
Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
Design Arena: websites11961201MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1220Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
Design Arena: game dev11661134Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1206Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
Design Arena: 3D11831164Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Design Arena: all code categories11891190MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: SVGNot measured1131Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
General benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
SAGE (Vals AI)51.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)69.9%80.8%MiniMax M2.1
Vals Multimodal Index52.2%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
IFBench78.0%69.9%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)78.0%67.7%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
DTBench89.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LMCA43.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1Leader
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 Flash Preview$0.0020Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.0009Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.034Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.019Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.130Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.072Exceeds the context window

MiniMax M2.1 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 Flash Preview and MiniMax M2.1
SpecificationGoogle Gemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M2.1
MakerGoogleMiniMax
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedDecember 17, 2025December 23, 2025
Context window1.05M205K
Input $/Mtok$0.50$0.30
Output $/Mtok$3.00$1.20
Coding index43.7Not benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it21
Cost per solved task$0.37$0.59
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?

Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a coding score, 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by τ²-Bench Telecom or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M2.1?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M2.1?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?

30 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2.1's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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