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Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M3

Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads MiniMax M3 on coding, 43.7 to 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 46 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3 Flash Preview Replace MiniMax M3
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle
Coding
43.7
Overall
55.0
Output $/M
$3.00
17
MiniMax M3MiniMax
Coding
39.2
Overall
51.7
Output $/M
$1.20
28
vs boards won of 46 shared, 1 tied

Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M3: which to pick

Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 2 benchmarks against 6.

Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) or Code migration (Vals AI), where it leads.

Model AGemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle43.7/1002 independent benchmarks$0.37 per solved taskModel BMiniMax M3MiniMax39.2/1006 independent benchmarks$0.56 per solved task
Shared results
46
Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
25
MiniMax M3 only
70
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 M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 13.7 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3 Flash Preview 20.2% against MiniMax M3 47.6%, 27.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against MiniMax M3 $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.5x 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 Flash PreviewBarsMiniMax M3Ties
Coding331 tie
Intelligence01
Agentic work110
Reasoning44
Math11
Knowledge51
Web design04
General34
All shared boards17281 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index33
Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
SWE-bench Verified75.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LiveBench codingNot measured70.9%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDevNot measured1482Only MiniMax M3 measured
AA Coding IndexNot measured58.6Only MiniMax M3 measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)85.6%82.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)75.0%75.0%Tie
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured1.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)20.2%47.6%MiniMax M3
Code migration (Vals AI)6.4%19.9%MiniMax M3
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.9%53.6%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
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
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)90.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
SciCodeNot measured47.1%Only MiniMax M3 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)38.6%42.4%MiniMax M3
Terminal-Bench64.3%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
FrontierCodeNot measured14.7%Only MiniMax M3 measured
GSO-Bench9.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
WeirdML61.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ALE-Bench1367.2640.0Gemini 3 Flash Preview
LMArena Text: codingNot measured1470Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: software and ITNot measured1466Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1478Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1455Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1470Only MiniMax M3 measured
SciCode12.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AA Intelligence Index26.329.2MiniMax M3
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured146.9Only MiniMax M3 measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured29.5Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps11111200MiniMax M3
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps10631197MiniMax M3
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps10901169MiniMax M3
Design Arena: agents building Android apps10511159MiniMax M3
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1161Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Design Arena: agents building gamesNot measured1158Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: HTML slidesNot measured1130Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides10361181MiniMax M3
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)42.5%48.3%MiniMax M3
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)11.8%20.6%MiniMax M3
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)18.3%29.8%MiniMax M3
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)26.0%47.8%MiniMax M3
τ²-Bench Telecom80.4%88.9%MiniMax M3
APEX-AgentsNot measured37.7%Only MiniMax M3 measured
OSWorld 2.0Not measured4.6%Only MiniMax M3 measured
BALROG48.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
DeepResearch Bench49.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Vending-Bench 2$3,635$2,158Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index44
Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
GPQA Diamond87.9%92.7%MiniMax M3
LiveBench reasoningNot measured74.5%Only MiniMax M3 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)87.6%81.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)89.8%92.9%MiniMax M3
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)36.6%39.0%MiniMax M3
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)89.4%90.9%MiniMax M3
ARC-AGI84.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
ARC-AGI-233.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
SimpleBench61.1%45.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Chess puzzles39.0%13.0%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Mystery game puzzles26.0%8.0%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
VPCT72.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LMArena Text: hard promptsNot measured1447Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: expertNot measured1461Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in EnglishNot measured1455Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1266Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1268Only MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Math benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
AIME95.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
MGSM (Vals AI)93.3%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
AA Math Index97.0Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)97.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
OTIS Mock AIME95.6%71.1%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
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%18.0%MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: mathNot measured1429Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: mathematical workNot measured1448Only MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
MMLU Pro88.6%84.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
LegalBench (Vals AI)86.9%85.4%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
CaseLaw (Vals AI)55.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)66.4%68.1%MiniMax M3
TaxEval (Vals AI)73.9%72.7%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.7%68.4%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MedQA (Vals AI)95.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
MedCode (Vals AI)55.9%46.3%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)89.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
SimpleQA Verified66.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
GeoBench88.0%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
LMArena Text: scienceNot measured1452Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcareNot measured1441Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: legal and governmentNot measured1437Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: business and financeNot measured1434Only MiniMax M3 measured
FACTS Benchmark Suite63.4%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3Leader
Design Arena: websites11961257MiniMax M3
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1242Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: game dev11661210MiniMax M3
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1236Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: 3D11831208MiniMax M3
Design Arena: all code categories11891247MiniMax M3
Design Arena: SVGNot measured1161Only MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: ASCII artNot measured1161Only MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench designNot measured66.2%Only MiniMax M3 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index34
General benchmarks for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and MiniMax M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash 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)51.8%50.6%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
MedScribe (Vals AI)69.9%87.3%MiniMax M3
Vals Multimodal Index52.2%60.0%MiniMax M3
IFBench78.0%82.9%MiniMax M3
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)78.0%83.0%MiniMax M3
DTBench89.1%78.9%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
LMCA43.1%33.7%Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Surface Evolver BenchNot measured55.0%Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena TextNot measured1433Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: instruction followingNot measured1433Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: creative writingNot measured1404Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena VisionNot measured1251Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: EnglishNot measured1443Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: non-EnglishNot measured1420Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: ChineseNot measured1466Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: GermanNot measured1428Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: JapaneseNot measured1380Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: KoreanNot measured1373Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: FrenchNot measured1444Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: SpanishNot measured1433Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: RussianNot measured1426Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1423Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: multi-turnNot measured1443Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: longer queriesNot measured1446Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: writing and languageNot measured1419Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and mediaNot measured1403Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1263Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1311Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1259Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1235Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing thingsNot measured1197Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1234Only MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena DocumentNot measured1435Only MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 11 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 M3
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash 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 Flash Preview$0.0020Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.0009Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.034Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.019Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.130Fits in one request
MiniMax M3$0.072Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 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 M3
SpecificationGoogle Gemini 3 Flash PreviewMiniMax M3
MakerGoogleMiniMax
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedDecember 17, 2025May 31, 2026
Context window1.05M1.05M
Input $/Mtok$0.50$0.30
Output $/Mtok$3.00$1.20
Coding index43.739.2
Independent measurements behind it26
Cost per solved task$0.37$0.56
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than MiniMax M3 for coding?

Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 2 benchmarks against 6. Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) or Code migration (Vals AI), where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M3?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and MiniMax M3 $0.56.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or MiniMax M3?

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M3 comparison based on?

46 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 M3's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/gemini-3-flash-preview-vs-minimax-minimax-m3" title="Gemini 3 Flash 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-flash-preview-vs-minimax-minimax-m3">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M3</a></p>