MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Inkling
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads Inkling on coding, 59.0 to 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs 6.8x less per output token ($0.60 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 20 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Inkling: which to pick
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding: it scores 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 4 benchmarks against 6.
Pick Inkling for work measured by LiveBench data analysis, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 20
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash only
- 0
- Inkling only
- 86
- 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
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash scores 59.0 against 31.5.
4 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads, 42.7 against 25.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling has a AA Agentic Index result, 22.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Inkling has a Design Arena: websites result, 1224.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads, 53.8% against 29.0%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash takes 1M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.0004, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling has the number, $0.76.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash 59.0 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 27.6 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LiveBench browser: MiniMax M3.1 Flash 92.0% against Inkling 16.0%, 76.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash $0.60 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 6.8x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M3.1 Flash takes 1M tokens, Inkling 524K.
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 | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 6 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 19 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index70
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 83.9% | 64.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev | 1587 | 1414 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.1 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 25.3% | 0.5% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 19.2% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | 53.4% | 47.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 946.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1465 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1609 | 1404 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1529 | 1399 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 89.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 42.7 | 25.0 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 148.4 | Only Inkling measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 22.5 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | 72.7% | 59.9% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench browser | 92.0% | 16.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench long agentic | 34.7% | 14.1% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.1% | 15.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 34.1% | 28.4% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 7.5% | 3.8% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 82.9% | 78.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 48.0% | 31.9% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | Not measured | 11.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1479 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 86.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1224 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1199 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1165 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1157 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1160 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1108 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1089 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench design | 74.0% | 58.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 53.8% | 29.0% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| LiveBench data analysis | 71.4% | 72.8% | Inkling |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.7% | 77.3% | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1434 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1493 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1449 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | Not measured | 1226 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Inkling | 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 | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 19, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | 59.0 | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M3.1 Flash better than Inkling for coding?
Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for coding: it scores 59.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 4 benchmarks against 6. Pick Inkling for work measured by LiveBench data analysis, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Inkling?
MiniMax M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $1.00 and $4.05. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling only.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Inkling?
MiniMax M3.1 Flash, with 1M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Inkling comparison based on?
20 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 Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.