MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 leads MiniMax M3 on coding, 39.5 to 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 1.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.80 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 19 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20: which to pick
MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 are level for coding, 39.2 against 39.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.80 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.56 against $1.35). Pick Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Mystery game puzzles, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 19
- MiniMax M3 only
- 98
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 only
- 6
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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: 39.2 against 39.5, inside 2 points.
6 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 29.2.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a AA Agentic Index result, 29.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 leads, 92.7% against 87.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a AIME result, 86.0%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 leads, 87.2% against 84.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1257.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 $0.0009, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $0.0012 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 $0.56, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.35.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 39.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 16.8 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- MMMU Pro (Vals AI): MiniMax M3 81.2% against Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 22.8%, 58.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M3 $1.20 against Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.80 per million output tokens, 1.5x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M3 takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 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 | MiniMax M3 | Bars | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 4 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 1 | ||
| General | 1 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 13 | 6 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index31
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 70.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 58.6 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.2% | 85.3% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 71.2% | MiniMax M3 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 1.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 47.6% | 15.7% | MiniMax M3 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 19.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 33.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 9.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 51.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 65.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SciCode | 47.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 640.0 | 608.9 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1470 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1466 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1478 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1455 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1470 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 29.2 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.9 | 146.2 | MiniMax M3 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 29.5 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1200 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1197 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1169 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1158 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1159 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1120 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1178 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1042 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench research | 68.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 8.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 12.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 48.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 20.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 29.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 47.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 88.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 37.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $2,158 | $1 | MiniMax M3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index41
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.7% | 87.4% | MiniMax M3 |
| LiveBench reasoning | 74.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 81.2% | 22.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.9% | 84.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 13.0% | 8.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| Mystery game puzzles | 8.0% | 17.0% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1447 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1461 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1455 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1266 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1268 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 86.0% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | 86.7% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| ProofBench | 18.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1429 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1448 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.2% | 87.2% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.4% | 85.1% | MiniMax M3 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.7% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 68.1% | 65.3% | MiniMax M3 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.4% | 60.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 95.2% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 46.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 25.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1452 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1441 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1437 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1434 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1257 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1243 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1210 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1236 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1208 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1246 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1160 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1161 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench design | 66.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 64.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 50.6% | 30.4% | MiniMax M3 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 60.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| IFBench | 82.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 83.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| DTBench | 78.9% | 80.5% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| LMCA | 33.7% | 36.4% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 19.8% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| CL-bench Life | Not measured | 12.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1433 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1433 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1404 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1251 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1443 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1420 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1466 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1428 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1380 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1373 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1444 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1433 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1426 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1423 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1443 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1446 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1419 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1403 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1263 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1311 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1259 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1235 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1197 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1234 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1150 | Not measured | 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 | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | 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 | MiniMax M3 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | May 31, 2026 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.20 | $1.80 |
| Coding index | 39.2 | 39.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.56 | $1.35 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M3 better than Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for coding?
MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 are level for coding, 39.2 against 39.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.80 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.56 against $1.35). Pick Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Mystery game puzzles, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20?
MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs $0.30 and $1.80. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, MiniMax M3 costs $0.56 and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.35.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20?
MiniMax M3, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 comparison based on?
19 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M3's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.