{"type":"post","id":"minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392","slug":"minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392","title":"MiniMax M3.1 Flash goes toe-to-toe with Opus and GPT on coding at ~25x lower cost.","description":"MiniMax M3.1 Flash is a newly announced model with stated availability through the MiniMax API, M Plan, and MiniMax Code.","retrieval_nugget":"MiniMax M3.1 Flash is a newly announced model with stated availability through the MiniMax API, M Plan, and MiniMax Code.","published_at":"2026-10-19","updated_at":"2026-10-19","record_date":"2026-10-19","date_kind":"published_at","topics":["models","pricing","coding-agents"],"source_urls":["https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f"],"schema_version":"newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2","stable_id":"post:minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392","status":"published","visuals":[],"editorial_provenance":{"schema_version":"newruntime-editorial-copy-v1","content_status":"source_grounded_final","final_copy_sha256":"sha256:ad365a3683388f57bc3a2967add3533c880048ebc0a40574e028c3d697aa8744","reviewed_at":"2026-10-19T17:05:21.911Z","source_evidence_count":1,"verified_claim_count":3,"site_analysis_schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","site_object_kind":"field_note","observed_fact_count":3,"implication_count":1,"watch_condition_count":1,"related_record_count":0},"analysis":{"schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","object_kind":"field_note","thesis":"A low-cost model release matters when teams can test the price-performance tradeoff in their own agent workflows.","observed_facts":[{"text":"MiniMax says M3.1 Flash is available through the MiniMax API, M Plan, and MiniMax Code.","source_urls":["https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f"]},{"text":"MiniMax reports 73.7% on DeepSWE v1.1 and 61.7 on OSWorld V2.","source_urls":["https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f"]},{"text":"The announcement lists $0.15 per million input tokens, $0.60 per million output tokens, and $0.015 per million cached input tokens.","source_urls":["https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f"]}],"mechanism":"M3.1 Flash pairs reported benchmark performance with published per-token prices and access through three MiniMax channels, making an initial evaluation possible without waiting for the announced later release of model weights.","why_now":"MiniMax says the model is available now through its API, M Plan, and MiniMax Code. That enables teams to test the stated economics directly, while the launch is current.","implications":["Builders can compare the published rates and benchmark claims with the cost and completion quality of their own coding and computer-use tasks."],"evidence_boundary":"The supplied source is MiniMax’s announcement; it gives company-reported benchmark scores and pricing but no independent replication or detailed evaluation methodology in the supplied material.","watch_conditions":["Independent evaluations and real workflow tests should show whether the reported capability and cost translate into reliable completed tasks."],"related_records":[],"new_branch_reason":"No prior New Runtime record was supplied; this creates a distinct record for the M3.1 Flash release and its published access, prices, and benchmark claims."},"editor":{"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]},"routes":{"html":"https://newruntime.com/posts/minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/posts/minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/posts/minimax-m3-1-flash-goes-toe-to-toe-b64392.json"},"next_reads":[{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/models/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/models/","title":"Models","reason":"Explore the models topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/models.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/models.json"},{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/pricing/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/pricing/","title":"Pricing","reason":"Explore the pricing topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/pricing.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/pricing.json"},{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/coding-agents/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/coding-agents/","title":"Coding Agents","reason":"Explore the coding-agents topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/coding-agents.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/coding-agents.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/posts/","url":"https://newruntime.com/posts/","title":"Field Notes","reason":"Open the latest editorial analysis.","media_type":"text/html","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/posts.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/source-ledger.json","url":"https://newruntime.com/source-ledger.json","title":"Source Ledger","reason":"Inspect the public source evidence graph.","media_type":"application/json"}]}