API cost decision in 10 seconds

New🔥MiniMax M3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1

Pick MiniMax M3 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-06-01T01:07:48Z Data confirmed: 2026-06-13T07:08:03Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick MiniMax M3 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, MiniMax M3 is estimated at $0.9 vs $1.4 for Mistral Medium 3.1, saving $0.5 (35.7% lower).

Cost-first pickMiniMax M3

Context-first pickMiniMax M3

Sample savings$0.535.7%

10x traffic gap$5

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

MiniMax M3 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	MiniMax M3	Mistral Medium 3.1
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	MiniMax M3	$2.1	$3
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	MiniMax M3	$1.5	$2.4
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	MiniMax M3	$6.3	$10.4

Cheaper input MiniMax M3 $0.3 vs $0.4 / 1M

MiniMax M3 is $0.1 cheaper per 1M input tokens (25% lower; 1.33x difference).

Cheaper output MiniMax M3 $1.2 vs $2 / 1M

MiniMax M3 is $0.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).

Larger context MiniMax M3 1.05M vs 131.07K

MiniMax M3 has 917.5K more context (8x larger).

Sample workload MiniMax M3 $0.9 vs $1.4

MiniMax M3 is $0.5 cheaper on the standard workload (35.7% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

MiniMax M3 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Mistral Medium 3.1 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

MiniMax M3 has the lower input price; MiniMax M3 has the lower output price; MiniMax M3 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, MiniMax M3 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.9 for MiniMax M3 and $1.4 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Best Fit

Choose MiniMax M3 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Mistral Medium 3.1 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, MiniMax M3 is estimated at $0.9 vs $1.4 for Mistral Medium 3.1, saving $0.5 (35.7% lower).
MiniMax M3 is $0.5 cheaper on the standard workload (35.7% lower).
MiniMax M3 is $0.1 cheaper per 1M input tokens (25% lower; 1.33x difference).
MiniMax M3 is $0.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
MiniMax M3 has 917.5K more context (8x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	New🔥MiniMax M3 (MiniMax)	Mistral Medium 3.1 (Mistral)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.3	$0.4
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$1.2	$2
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.9	$1.4
Context Window	1.05M	131.07K
Release Date	2026-05-31	2025-08-13
Popularity	#4	#150

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	MiniMax M3	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, MiniMax M3 is estimated at $0.9 vs $1.4 for Mistral Medium 3.1, saving $0.5 (35.7% lower).
High-volume input processing	MiniMax M3	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	MiniMax M3	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	MiniMax M3	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

MiniMax M2.5 (free) can replace MiniMax M3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
MiniMax M2.5 can replace MiniMax M3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.6.
MiniMax M2.7 can replace MiniMax M3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.75.
MiniMax-01 can replace MiniMax M3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.75.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.25 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #3
DeepSeek V4 Pro · DeepSeek · #5

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

MiniMax catalog

Review all tracked MiniMax models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open MiniMax models

Mistral catalog

Check other Mistral models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open Mistral models

MiniMax M3

MiniMax-M3 is a multimodal foundation model from MiniMax. It supports text, image, and video inputs with text output, a 1M-token context window, and is suited for long-horizon agentic work, coding,...

Mistral Medium 3.1

Mistral Medium 3.1 is an updated version of Mistral Medium 3, which is a high-performance enterprise-grade language model designed to deliver frontier-level capabilities at significantly reduced operational cost. It balances...