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MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus

Qwen3.6 Plus leads MiniMax M3 on coding, 44.1 to 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 1.6x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.95 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 77 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace MiniMax M3 Replace Qwen3.6 Plus
MiniMax M3MiniMax
Coding
39.2
Overall
51.7
Output $/M
$1.20
46
Qwen3.6 PlusQwen
Coding
44.1
Overall
56.2
Output $/M
$1.95
30
vs boards won of 77 shared, 1 tied

MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.6 Plus: which to pick

Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for coding: it scores 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 3 benchmarks against 6.

Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.95 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.56 against $1.19).

Model AMiniMax M3MiniMax39.2/1006 independent benchmarks$0.56 per solved taskModel BQwen3.6 PlusQwen44.1/1003 independent benchmarks$1.19 per solved task
Shared results
77
MiniMax M3 only
39
Qwen3.6 Plus only
6
Like-for-like categories
8 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.

At a glance

Coding index
MiniMax M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Agentic work, 12.9 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
OTIS Mock AIME: MiniMax M3 71.1% against Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, 22.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
MiniMax M3 $1.20 against Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
Context window
MiniMax M3 takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen3.6 Plus 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryMiniMax M3BarsQwen3.6 PlusTies
Coding95
Intelligence11
Agentic work42
Reasoning55
Math12
Knowledge73
Web design611 tie
General1311
All shared boards46301 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index95
Coding benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
LiveBench coding70.9%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena WebDev14821461MiniMax M3
AA Coding Index58.654.5MiniMax M3
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.2%86.0%Qwen3.6 Plus
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)75.0%73.4%MiniMax M3
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)1.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)47.6%25.6%MiniMax M3
Code migration (Vals AI)19.9%11.1%MiniMax M3
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.6%53.2%MiniMax M3
SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI)33.3%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)9.2%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)51.5%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)65.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
SciCode47.1%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)42.4%43.9%Qwen3.6 Plus
FrontierCode14.7%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
ALE-Bench640.0670.1Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: coding14701467MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: software and IT14661462MiniMax M3
LMArena WebDev: React14781454MiniMax M3
LMArena WebDev: HTML14551463Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena WebDev: from an image14701472Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Intelligence benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
AA Intelligence Index29.227.0MiniMax M3
Epoch Capabilities Index146.9147.3Qwen3.6 Plus
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index42
Agentic work benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
AA Agentic Index29.5Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps1200Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1197Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1169Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1159Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: agents building games1158Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1130Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1181Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets1028Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench research68.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench browser8.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LiveBench long agentic12.4%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)48.3%40.9%MiniMax M3
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)20.6%7.7%MiniMax M3
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)29.8%14.9%MiniMax M3
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)47.8%32.9%MiniMax M3
τ²-Bench Telecom88.9%97.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
APEX-Agents37.7%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
OSWorld 2.04.6%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Vending-Bench 2$2,158$5,115Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index55
Reasoning benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
GPQA Diamond92.7%87.4%MiniMax M3
LiveBench reasoning74.5%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)81.2%84.2%Qwen3.6 Plus
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)92.9%88.2%MiniMax M3
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)39.0%27.8%MiniMax M3
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.9%88.4%MiniMax M3
SimpleBench45.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Chess puzzles13.0%14.0%Qwen3.6 Plus
Mystery game puzzles8.0%12.0%Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: hard prompts14471448Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: expert14611454MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14551455Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Vision: diagrams1266Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: homework1268Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
Math benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
AIMENot measured94.6%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
OTIS Mock AIME71.1%93.3%Qwen3.6 Plus
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured38.2%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
ProofBench18.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: math14291449Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: mathematical work14481448MiniMax M3
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index73
Knowledge benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
MMLU Pro84.2%87.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
LegalBench (Vals AI)85.4%84.2%MiniMax M3
CaseLaw (Vals AI)Not measured51.5%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)68.1%61.9%MiniMax M3
TaxEval (Vals AI)72.7%74.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.4%68.0%MiniMax M3
MedCode (Vals AI)46.3%36.9%MiniMax M3
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured44.1%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: science14521439MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14411442Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: legal and government14371437MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: business and finance14341430MiniMax M3
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index61
Web design benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
Design Arena: websites12571243MiniMax M3
Design Arena: UI components12421230MiniMax M3
Design Arena: game dev12101211Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: data viz12361228MiniMax M3
Design Arena: 3D12081202MiniMax M3
Design Arena: all code categories12471236MiniMax M3
Design Arena: SVG11611161Tie
Design Arena: ASCII art11611113MiniMax M3
LiveBench design66.2%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1311
General benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
LiveBench data analysis76.2%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)64.1%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
SAGE (Vals AI)50.6%44.9%MiniMax M3
MedScribe (Vals AI)87.3%77.0%MiniMax M3
Vals Multimodal Index60.0%51.5%MiniMax M3
IFBench82.9%75.2%MiniMax M3
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)83.0%78.3%MiniMax M3
DTBench78.9%81.9%Qwen3.6 Plus
LMCA33.7%33.1%MiniMax M3
CL-benchNot measured20.3%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Surface Evolver Bench55.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text14331436Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: instruction following14331424MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: creative writing14041404MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision1251Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Text: English14431445Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: non-English14201424Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Chinese14661477Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: German14281451Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Japanese13801390Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Korean13731379Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: French14441455Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Spanish14331432MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: Russian14261434Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Polish14231433Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: multi-turn14431438MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: longer queries14461439MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: writing and language14191418MiniMax M3
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14031402MiniMax M3
LMArena Vision: English1263Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1311Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1259Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: humor1235Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things1197Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1234Not measuredOnly MiniMax M3 measured
LMArena Document1435Not measuredOnly 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
Image generation benchmarks for MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 PlusLeader
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$0.0009Fits in one request
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.0013Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

MiniMax M3$0.019Fits in one request
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.022Fits in one request

MiniMax M3 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

MiniMax M3$0.072Fits in one request
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.085Fits in one request

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.

Specifications of MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.6 Plus
SpecificationMiniMax M3Qwen3.6 Plus
MakerMiniMaxQwen
WeightsOpen weightsNo public weights listed
ReleasedMay 31, 2026April 2, 2026
Context window1.05M1M
Input $/Mtok$0.30$0.325
Output $/Mtok$1.20$1.95
Coding index39.244.1
Independent measurements behind it63
Cost per solved task$0.56$1.19
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is MiniMax M3 better than Qwen3.6 Plus for coding?

Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for coding: it scores 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 3 benchmarks against 6. Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.95 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.56 against $1.19).

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?

MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 and $1.95. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, MiniMax M3 costs $0.56 and Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19.

Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?

MiniMax M3, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus comparison based on?

77 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M3's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.6 Plus's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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