MiniMax M3 vs Hy4 preview
Hy4 preview leads MiniMax M3 on coding, 44.3 to 39.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M3 costs 2.1x less per output token ($1.20 vs $2.501 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 17 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M3 or Hy4 preview: which to pick
Pick Hy4 preview for coding: it scores 44.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 3 benchmarks against 6.
Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.501 per million) and work measured by LegalBench (Vals AI) or MedCode (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 17
- MiniMax M3 only
- 99
- Hy4 preview only
- 7
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
Hy4 preview
Hy4 preview scores 44.3 against 39.2.
6 and 3 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
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a GPQA Diamond result, 92.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a MMLU Pro result, 84.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1257.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Hy4 preview has a Vals Index result, 53.2%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 $0.0009, Hy4 preview $0.0021 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has the number, $0.56.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M3 39.2 from 6 benchmarks, Hy4 preview 44.3 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 57.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ProofBench: MiniMax M3 18.0% against Hy4 preview 75.0%, 57.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M3 $1.20 against Hy4 preview $2.501 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1.05M tokens.
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 | Hy4 preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 8 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 3 | 14 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index08
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 70.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | 1631 | Hy4 preview |
| AA Coding Index | 58.6 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 1.0% | 8.1% | Hy4 preview |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 47.6% | 77.5% | Hy4 preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 19.9% | 47.4% | Hy4 preview |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.3% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.6% | 55.1% | Hy4 preview |
| 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% | 65.4% | Hy4 preview |
| 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 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| 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 | 1653 | Hy4 preview |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1455 | 1620 | Hy4 preview |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1470 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 29.2 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.9 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | 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 | 1159 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1158 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1130 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1181 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1028 | 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 |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.3% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 48.3% | 55.1% | Hy4 preview |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 20.6% | 32.6% | Hy4 preview |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 29.8% | 45.2% | Hy4 preview |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 8.8% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 47.8% | 58.1% | Hy4 preview |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.3% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.4% | Only Hy4 preview 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 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 74.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 81.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| 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% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 13.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 8.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| 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 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| ProofBench | 18.0% | 75.0% | Hy4 preview |
| 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 index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.4% | 83.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 68.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 46.3% | 43.3% | MiniMax M3 |
| 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 8 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1257 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1242 | 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 | 1247 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1161 | 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 index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Hy4 preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 53.2% | Only Hy4 preview measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 64.1% | 68.6% | Hy4 preview |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 50.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.3% | 83.6% | MiniMax M3 |
| 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% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMCA | 33.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 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 |
| 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 | Hy4 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 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 | Tencent Hy4 preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Tencent |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | May 31, 2026 | August 28, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.834 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.20 | $2.501 |
| Coding index | 39.2 | 44.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.56 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M3 better than Hy4 preview for coding?
Pick Hy4 preview for coding: it scores 44.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.2 for MiniMax M3, though on 3 benchmarks against 6. Pick MiniMax M3 for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.501 per million) and work measured by LegalBench (Vals AI) or MedCode (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or Hy4 preview?
MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Hy4 preview costs $0.834 and $2.501. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M3 only.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3 or Hy4 preview?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3 vs Hy4 preview comparison based on?
17 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M3's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Hy4 preview's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.