Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs MiniMax M2
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
Google · Mar 2026
The cheapest Gemini 3 model: multimodal input and a 1M context for $0.25/$1.50 — built for massive-scale pipelines.
MiniMax · Oct 2025
A 10B-active MoE tuned purely for agents and code — striking capability-per-active-parameter at rock-bottom prices.
The verdict
These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. MiniMax M2 is about 1.1x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite also takes 1M of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2. And MiniMax M2 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Specs & pricing
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | MiniMax M2 | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | — | 68.9 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.25 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $1.5 | $1.2 |
| Context window | 1M | 205K |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Open weights | no | yes (MIT) |
| Reasoning model | no | yes |
| Multimodal input | text, image, audio, video | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Nov 2025 | Jun 2025 |
| Released | Mar 2026 | Oct 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $4.75 | $4.80 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or MiniMax M2?
- These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. MiniMax M2 is about 1.1x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite also takes 1M of context versus 205K for MiniMax M2. And MiniMax M2 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or MiniMax M2?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $0.25/$1.5 per million input/output tokens, while MiniMax M2 costs $0.3/$1.2. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $4.75 versus $4.80.
- Which model is better for coding, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or MiniMax M2?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.