Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M2.5
Updated October 21, 2026. 29 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 75.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 59.4 for MiniMax M2.5, though on 1 benchmark against 2.
Pick MiniMax M2.5 when output tokens cost 3.2x less, or when what matters is τ²-Bench Telecom or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 40
- MiniMax M2.5 only
- 38
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores 75.8 against 59.4.
1 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 26.3 against 22.8.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 82.1%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 95.6% against 88.8%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 80.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax M2.5 leads, 1222 against 1196.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.5
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020, MiniMax M2.5 $0.0007 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37, MiniMax M2.5 $0.62.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 75.8 from 1 benchmark, MiniMax M2.5 59.4 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 18.8 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ARC-AGI-2: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 33.6% against MiniMax M2.5 4.9%, 28.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against MiniMax M2.5 $0.95 per million output tokens, 3.2x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens, MiniMax M2.5 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.
| Category | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Bars | MiniMax M2.5 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 6 | 0 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 6 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 3 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 24 | 4 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index60
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | 75.8% | Tie |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | Not measured | 68.3% | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1386 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 85.6% | 79.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 74.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 20.2% | 14.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 38.6% | 34.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | 42.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GSO-Bench | 9.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1367.2 | 618.2 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1380 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1383 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1374 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1414 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.3 | 22.8 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.6 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1111 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1063 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1056 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1161 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1036 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 42.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 18.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.4% | 95.3% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| BALROG | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,635 | -$23 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.9% | 82.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.8% | 84.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.6% | 20.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 89.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI | 84.7% | 63.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | 4.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| VPCT | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1372 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1378 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1384 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | 88.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | 97.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 97.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 51.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProofBench | 15.0% | 4.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1378 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1378 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | 80.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.9% | 80.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | 53.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.4% | 59.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 68.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.8% | 92.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 55.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GeoBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1369 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1357 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1366 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1356 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1196 | 1222 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1172 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1166 | 1176 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1171 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1184 | 1170 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1189 | 1207 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1147 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 52.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| IFBench | 78.0% | 71.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 73.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| DTBench | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMCA | 43.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 11.4% | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| CL-bench Life | Not measured | 6.3% | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1359 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1353 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1331 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1380 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1338 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1393 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1361 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1171 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1233 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1363 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1353 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1359 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1334 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1364 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1366 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1345 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1329 | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 | 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 M2.5 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M2.5 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
MiniMax M2.5 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 Flash Preview | MiniMax M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | December 17, 2025 | February 12, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.27 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.95 |
| Coding index | 75.8 | 59.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | $0.62 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than MiniMax M2.5 for coding?
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 75.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 59.4 for MiniMax M2.5, though on 1 benchmark against 2. Pick MiniMax M2.5 when output tokens cost 3.2x less, or when what matters is τ²-Bench Telecom or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M2.5?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.27 and $0.95. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and MiniMax M2.5 $0.62.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M2.5?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M2.5 comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and MiniMax M2.5's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.