MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads MiniMax M3.1 Flash on coding, 61.1 to 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs 4.5x less per output token ($0.60 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 18 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Step 5 Preview: which to pick
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 59.0 for MiniMax M3.1 Flash.
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 4.5x cheaper ($0.60 vs $2.70 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 18
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash only
- 2
- Step 5 Preview only
- 43
- 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
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview scores 61.1 against 59.0.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 42.7.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash has a Vals Index result, 53.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.0004, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash 59.0 from 4 benchmarks, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 17.3 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LiveBench browser: MiniMax M3.1 Flash 92.0% against Step 5 Preview 24.0%, 68.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.60 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 4.5x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash takes 1M tokens, Step 5 Preview 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 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 3 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 8 | 10 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index34
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 83.9% | 85.6% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev | 1587 | 1567 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 25.3% | 31.8% | Step 5 Preview |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 70.4% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SciCode | 53.4% | 58.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1485 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1473 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1609 | 1583 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1529 | 1556 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1550 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 42.7 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 72.7% | 72.8% | Step 5 Preview |
| LiveBench browser | 92.0% | 24.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench long agentic | 34.7% | 27.5% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.7% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.1% | 27.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 34.1% | 40.4% | Step 5 Preview |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 7.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 29.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 82.9% | 83.8% | Step 5 Preview |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 48.0% | 46.5% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1461 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1485 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1454 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1308 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1458 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1454 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1439 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1437 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench design | 74.0% | 76.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 53.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 71.4% | 63.5% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.7% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1440 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1438 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1409 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1447 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1428 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1500 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1383 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1438 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1433 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1449 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1425 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1412 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1290 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1282 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | 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 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | StepFun |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 19, 2026 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 59.0 | 61.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M3.1 Flash better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 59.0 for MiniMax M3.1 Flash. Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for output tokens 4.5x cheaper ($0.60 vs $2.70 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
18 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M3.1 Flash's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Step 5 Preview's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.