Grok 4.5 vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads Grok 4.5 on coding, 59.0 to 58.6 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs 10.0x less per output token ($0.60 vs $6.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 18 benchmarks have a result for both.
Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash: which to pick
Grok 4.5 and MiniMax M3.1 Flash are level for coding, 58.6 against 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick Grok 4.5 for work measured by LiveBench coding or SciCode, where it leads. Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($0.60 vs $6.00 per million) and a larger context window (1M against 500K tokens).
- Shared results
- 18
- Grok 4.5 only
- 106
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash only
- 2
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
No call
Level: 58.6 against 59.0, inside 2 points.
6 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads, 42.7 against 38.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Grok 4.5 has a AA Agentic Index result, 41.2.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Grok 4.5 has a GPQA Diamond result, 92.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Grok 4.5 has a MMLU Pro result, 89.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Grok 4.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1281.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash has a Vals Index result, 53.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash takes 1M tokens against 500K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Grok 4.5 $0.0050, MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Grok 4.5 has the number, $0.62.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Grok 4.5 58.6 from 6 benchmarks, MiniMax M3.1 Flash 59.0 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 15.8 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LiveBench browser: Grok 4.5 44.0% against MiniMax M3.1 Flash 92.0%, 48.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Grok 4.5 $6.00 against MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.60 per million output tokens, 10.0x apart.
- Context window
- Grok 4.5 takes 500K tokens, MiniMax M3.1 Flash 1M.
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 | Grok 4.5 | Bars | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 2 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 8 | 10 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index34
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 94.3% | 83.9% | Grok 4.5 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1553 | 1587 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| AA Coding Index | 72.4 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 87.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 86.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 8.6% | 25.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 69.0% | 73.9% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 36.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 40.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 67.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 66.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 71.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SciCode | 55.0% | 53.4% | Grok 4.5 |
| FrontierCode | 42.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| WeirdML | 46.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1309.3 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1474 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1471 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1556 | 1609 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1567 | 1529 | Grok 4.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1562 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SciCode | 6.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 38.8 | 42.7 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.1 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index23
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 41.2 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1218 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1249 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1220 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1236 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1229 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1236 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1155 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1209 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench research | 85.9% | 72.7% | Grok 4.5 |
| LiveBench browser | 44.0% | 92.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench long agentic | 27.9% | 34.7% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 48.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 24.9% | 32.1% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 38.0% | 34.1% | Grok 4.5 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.5% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 52.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 6.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 56.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| PostTrainBench | 23.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,887 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Search | 1216 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 87.2% | 82.9% | Grok 4.5 |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 93.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.7% | 48.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 93.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 87.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 52.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SimpleBench | 70.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 35.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1462 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1465 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1464 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1304 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1295 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 83.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 97.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 57.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 24.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| ProofBench | 31.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1460 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1482 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| MathArena | 34.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 67.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 43.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 48.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1464 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1440 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1463 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1441 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 50.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1281 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1277 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1263 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1266 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1257 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1275 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1214 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1257 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 78.1% | 74.0% | Grok 4.5 |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 53.8% | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 73.0% | 71.4% | Grok 4.5 |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 35.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 86.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | 79.7% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| DTBench | 96.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMCA | 45.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 74.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 22.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1448 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1445 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1442 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1287 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1453 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1440 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1495 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1448 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1430 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1406 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1457 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1451 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1449 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1432 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1456 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1462 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1445 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1434 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1285 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1345 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1293 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1276 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1293 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1452 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.5 | 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 | SpaceXAI Grok 4.5 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | xAI | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 8, 2026 | October 19, 2026 |
| Context window | 500K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $6.00 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | 58.6 | 59.0 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.62 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Grok 4.5 better than MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding?
Grok 4.5 and MiniMax M3.1 Flash are level for coding, 58.6 against 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick Grok 4.5 for work measured by LiveBench coding or SciCode, where it leads. Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($0.60 vs $6.00 per million) and a larger context window (1M against 500K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
Grok 4.5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for Grok 4.5 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.5 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
MiniMax M3.1 Flash, with 1M tokens against 500K.
How many benchmarks is the Grok 4.5 vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash comparison based on?
18 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Grok 4.5's coding index rests on 6 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.