Gemini 4 Carbon vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Gemini 4 Carbon leads MiniMax M3.1 Flash on coding, 86.6 to 55.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs 16.7x less per output token ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 26 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 4 Carbon or MiniMax M3.1 Flash: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.7 for MiniMax M3.1 Flash.
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 16.7x cheaper ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by LiveBench browser or Long context reasoning (AA-LCR), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 26
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 47
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash only
- 6
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 55.7.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 60.0 against 29.1.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Design Arena: websites result, 1319.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 70.5% against 53.8%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070, MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks, MiniMax M3.1 Flash 55.7 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 30.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: Gemini 4 Carbon 2374.7 against MiniMax M3.1 Flash 217.8, 71.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 against MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.60 per million output tokens, 16.7x 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.
| Category | Gemini 4 Carbon | Bars | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 9 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 3 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 24 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index90
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 91.0% | 68.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev | 1768 | 1584 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 63.1% | 25.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 89.1% | 73.9% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SciCode | Not measured | 53.4% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.2% | 25.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 40.6% | 20.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierSWE | 61.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2374.7 | 217.8 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1564 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1552 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1792 | 1603 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1770 | 1558 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 96.6% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| GameBench 2 | Not measured | 41.0 | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 60.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 60.0 | 29.1 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 169.8 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1224 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench research | 92.5% | 76.7% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench browser | 80.0% | 80.6% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench long agentic | 72.7% | 25.7% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | 32.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | 34.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | 7.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| APEX-Agents | 84.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $16,484 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 90.6% | 82.9% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 48.0% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.1% | 28.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.0% | 32.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 96.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 94.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleBench | 92.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 73.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| EBR-bench | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1551 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1582 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1545 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 90.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 95.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1538 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MathArena | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | 53.5 | -6.4 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SimpleQA Verified | 77.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1535 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1525 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1542 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1520 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| PRBench Finance | Not measured | 45.6% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| PRBench Legal | 53.3% | 45.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1319 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1357 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1326 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1348 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench design | 80.2% | 71.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.5% | 53.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench data analysis | 86.5% | 71.4% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.3% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | 79.7% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| GDPval-AA | 1733 | 1465 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Furniture assembly | 77.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1538 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1539 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1533 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1530 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1534 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1613 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1560 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1569 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1549 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1542 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1527 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | 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 4 Carbon | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 10, 2026 | October 19, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | 86.6 | 55.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.7 for MiniMax M3.1 Flash. Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 16.7x cheaper ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by LiveBench browser or Long context reasoning (AA-LCR), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 4 Carbon or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Carbon vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash comparison based on?
26 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 4 Carbon's coding index rests on 4 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.