MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3 30B A3B
MiniMax M1 leads Qwen3 30B A3B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.7 to 7.6, and Qwen3 30B A3B costs 4.4x less per output token ($0.50 vs $2.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 30B A3B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick MiniMax M1 for a larger context window (1M against 41K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: mathematical work or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- MiniMax M1 only
- 0
- Qwen3 30B A3B only
- 24
- 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
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M1
MiniMax M1 leads, 11.7 against 7.6.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3 30B A3B has a Design Arena: websites result, 954.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M1
MiniMax M1 takes 1M tokens against 41K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B
MiniMax M1 $0.0015, Qwen3 30B A3B $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M1 not benchmarked, Qwen3 30B A3B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 4.5 points apart on average over 17 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: entertainment and media: MiniMax M1 1303 against Qwen3 30B A3B 1258, 7.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M1 $2.20 against Qwen3 30B A3B $0.50 per million output tokens, 4.4x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M1 takes 1M tokens, Qwen3 30B A3B 41K.
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 | MiniMax M1 | Bars | Qwen3 30B A3B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 0 | ||
| Math | 1 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 16 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 27 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 29.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1359 | 1337 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1359 | 1340 | MiniMax M1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.7 | 7.6 | MiniMax M1 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 137.3 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 41 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 61.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.2% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 61.7% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1339 | 1314 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1317 | 1314 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1353 | 1329 | MiniMax M1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 72.3 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 72.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 62.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1361 | 1355 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1363 | 1363 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| MathArena | Not measured | 9.4% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1354 | 1321 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1355 | 1318 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1337 | 1314 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1319 | 1309 | MiniMax M1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 954 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 943 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 898 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 967 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 941 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index161
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 41.5% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 15.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 40.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1317 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1312 | 1283 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1297 | 1271 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1363 | 1335 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1319 | 1295 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1360 | 1347 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1350 | 1307 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1217 | 1254 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1266 | 1261 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1370 | 1352 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1353 | 1317 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1329 | 1291 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1329 | 1299 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1335 | 1307 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1326 | 1312 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1311 | 1290 | MiniMax M1 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1303 | 1258 | MiniMax M1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B | 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
Qwen3 30B A3B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B 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 | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | June 17, 2025 | April 28, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 41K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.40 | $0.12 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.20 | $0.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3 30B A3B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M1 for a larger context window (1M against 41K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: mathematical work or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 30B A3B?
MiniMax M1 costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.12 and $0.50. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M1 or Qwen3 30B A3B?
MiniMax M1, with 1M tokens against 41K.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3 30B A3B comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M1's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 30B A3B's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.