GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M3
GPT-6 Astra leads MiniMax M3 on coding, 85.1 to 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 41.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 92 benchmarks have a result for both.
GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3: which to pick
Pick GPT-6 Astra for coding: it scores 85.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 5 benchmarks against 6.
Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million) and work measured by CyberBench (Vals AI) or LMArena Text: science, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 92
- GPT-6 Astra only
- 37
- MiniMax M3 only
- 25
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra scores 85.1 against 39.2.
5 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra leads, 52.7 against 29.2.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra leads, 51.0 against 29.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a GPQA Diamond result, 92.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a MMLU Pro result, 84.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra leads, 1336 against 1257.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only GPT-6 Astra has a Vals Index result, 65.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra takes 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3
GPT-6 Astra $0.035, MiniMax M3 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has the number, $0.56.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-6 Astra 85.1 from 5 benchmarks, MiniMax M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 30.7 points apart on average over 18 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vending-Bench 2: GPT-6 Astra $15,515 against MiniMax M3 $2,158, 83.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-6 Astra $50.00 against MiniMax M3 $1.20 per million output tokens, 41.7x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-6 Astra takes 1.05M tokens, MiniMax M3 1.05M.
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 | GPT-6 Astra | Bars | MiniMax M3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 17 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 15 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 11 | 0 | ||
| Math | 4 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 2 | ||
| Web design | 9 | 0 | ||
| General | 23 | 5 | ||
| All shared boards | 84 | 8 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index171
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 93.7% | 70.9% | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | 1482 | GPT-6 Astra |
| AA Coding Index | 76.9 | 58.6 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.0% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 59.6% | 1.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 89.6% | 47.6% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 67.7% | 19.9% | GPT-6 Astra |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 5.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 100.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 87.3% | 53.6% | GPT-6 Astra |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 43.3% | 33.3% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 27.6% | 9.2% | GPT-6 Astra |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.5% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 41.1% | 65.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| SciCode | 56.5% | 47.1% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 42.4% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| FrontierCode | 53.3% | 14.7% | GPT-6 Astra |
| FrontierSWE | 65.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| GSO-Bench | 79.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| WeirdML | 93.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MirrorCode | 46.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2951.3 | 640.0 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1489 | 1470 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1474 | 1466 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1798 | 1478 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1775 | 1455 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1726 | 1470 | GPT-6 Astra |
| SciCode | 12.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 96.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Codebase QnA | 59.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Refactoring | 59.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Test Writing | 50.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 52.7 | 29.2 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 168.8 | 146.9 | GPT-6 Astra |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index150
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 51.0 | 29.5 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1374 | 1200 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1357 | 1197 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1312 | 1169 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1158 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1348 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | Not measured | 1159 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | Not measured | 1120 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1217 | 1178 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1378 | 1042 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LiveBench research | 85.2% | 68.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| LiveBench browser | 84.0% | 8.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| LiveBench long agentic | 82.4% | 12.4% | GPT-6 Astra |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 56.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 53.5% | 48.3% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 20.7% | 20.6% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 39.4% | 29.8% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 7.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 71.7% | 47.8% | GPT-6 Astra |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 79.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vals Science Index | 65.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 90.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| CUA-bench (Vals AI) | 19.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Robo-bench (Vals AI) | 23.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 88.9% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 64.7% | 37.7% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Remote Labor Index | 20.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | Not measured | 4.6% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| BALROG | 68.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SpireClimb | 25.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $15,515 | $2,158 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 92.7% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 92.7% | 74.5% | GPT-6 Astra |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 53.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 81.2% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 96.3% | 92.9% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 54.7% | 39.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.8% | 90.9% | GPT-6 Astra |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 95.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 45.8% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 74.0% | 13.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Mystery game puzzles | 84.0% | 8.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| EBR-bench | 76.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1463 | 1447 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1489 | 1461 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1464 | 1455 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1297 | 1266 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1337 | 1268 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 60.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | 71.1% | GPT-6 Astra |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 93.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 97.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ProofBench | 99.0% | 18.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: math | 1465 | 1429 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1484 | 1448 | GPT-6 Astra |
| MathArena | 81.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 84.2% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.1% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.7% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.4% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 48.5% | 46.3% | GPT-6 Astra |
| SimpleQA Verified | 75.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | 1452 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1425 | 1441 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1462 | 1437 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1439 | 1434 | GPT-6 Astra |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 75.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| PRBench Finance | 47.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| PRBench Legal | 48.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index90
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1336 | 1257 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1394 | 1243 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1480 | 1210 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1334 | 1236 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1500 | 1208 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1379 | 1246 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1430 | 1160 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1353 | 1161 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LiveBench design | 82.0% | 66.2% | GPT-6 Astra |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index235
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 65.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 83.0% | 76.2% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 46.4% | 50.6% | MiniMax M3 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.9% | 87.3% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 60.0% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 82.9% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.7% | 83.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| DTBench | 97.3% | 78.9% | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMCA | 64.4% | 33.7% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 55.0% | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 80.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text | 1441 | 1433 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1455 | 1433 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1420 | 1404 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision | 1280 | 1251 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: English | 1447 | 1443 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1432 | 1420 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1489 | 1466 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: German | 1459 | 1428 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1405 | 1380 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1428 | 1373 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: French | 1432 | 1444 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1422 | 1433 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1438 | 1426 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1422 | 1423 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1447 | 1443 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1460 | 1446 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1437 | 1419 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1427 | 1403 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1280 | 1263 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1361 | 1311 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1292 | 1259 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1235 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1197 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1286 | 1234 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Document | Not measured | 1435 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | Not measured | 1150 | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 | 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 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | OpenAI GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 4, 2026 | May 31, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $50.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 85.1 | 39.2 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.56 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-6 Astra better than MiniMax M3 for coding?
Pick GPT-6 Astra for coding: it scores 85.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 5 benchmarks against 6. Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million) and work measured by CyberBench (Vals AI) or LMArena Text: science, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3?
GPT-6 Astra costs $10.00 per million input tokens and $50.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M3 only.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M3?
GPT-6 Astra, with 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M3 comparison based on?
92 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GPT-6 Astra's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M3's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.