MiniMax vs Claude: coding, reasoning and price

Choose MiniMax-M3.1-Flash for about 29× lower request cost on Novita AI ($0.0021 vs $0.0600 for Claude Opus 5.5) with faster AA output speed (116.2 vs 96.8 tokens/s); choose Claude for agentic coding, where it leads Terminal-Bench 4.0 by 33.8 pp (59.6% vs 25.8%).

Updated · 4 sources · Methodology

DimensionWinnerMarginEvidence
Coding benchmarkClaude Opus 5.533.8 ppTerminal-Bench 4.0: Claude 59.6% vs MiniMax 25.8%12
Reasoning benchmarkClaude Opus 5.513.4 ppHLE: Claude 61.4% vs MiniMax 48.0%12
Output speed (tokens/s)MiniMax-M3.1-Flash19.4 tokens/sMiniMax 116.2 vs Claude 96.8 tokens/s12
Estimated request costMiniMax-M3.1-Flash$0.0579MiniMax $0.0021 vs Claude $0.060034

Coding and reasoning benchmarks

MetricMiniMax-M3.1-FlashClaude Opus 5.5 (Max)
AA · Terminal-Bench 4.01225.8%59.6%
AA · HLE1248.0%61.4%
AA · SciCode1253.4%66.9%

Performance

MetricMiniMax-M3.1-FlashClaude Opus 5.5 (Max)
Output speed (tokens/s)12116.296.8
Time to first answer token (s)1218.3676.8

Prices and request cost

MetricMiniMax-M3.1-FlashClaude Opus 5.5
Input / 1M tokens34$0.15$4.00
Output / 1M tokens34$0.60$20.00
Context window (tokens)341,000,0001,000,000
Cost example: 10,000 input + 1,000 billed output tokens
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash$0.0021
Claude Opus 5.5$0.0600

When each option fits

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash

  • For high-volume requests, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash on Novita AI costs $0.15 input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens; the example request is $0.0021, about 29× less than Claude.34
  • Its AA output speed of 116.2 tokens/s is about 20% above Claude’s 96.8, and its median time to first answer token is 18.3 s versus 676.8 s, so the lower price comes with faster responses in AA’s reference.12
  • MiniMax-M3.1-Flash’s smallest benchmark gap is HLE, 48.0% versus 61.4% (13.4 pp).12

Claude Opus 5.5

  • For terminal-based coding agents, Claude leads Terminal-Bench 4.0 by 33.8 pp, 59.6% versus 25.8%, the widest gap on this page.12
  • For scientific coding, Claude’s SciCode result is 66.9% versus 53.4%, a 13.5 pp lead.12
  • Context is equal: Novita AI lists 1,000,000 tokens for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and Anthropic lists 1,000,000 for Claude.34

Methodology and sources

AA uses the named reasoning configurations; Claude Opus 5.5 is Max with default fallback.123

Coding and reasoning rows use the same AA evaluation versions: Terminal-Bench 4.0, HLE and SciCode. The available official reports do not provide this exact current model pair under a common setup. AA output speed and time to first answer token are model references, not Novita endpoint guarantees; the latter is AA’s median for its 10,000-input-token prompt and includes reasoning for both models. Prices and context windows are Novita AI’s listed values for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and Anthropic’s for Claude Opus 5.5; the uncached example uses 10,000 input and 1,000 billed output tokens.

Costs are estimates at listed rates for uncached synchronous requests, not measured invoices; billed output includes reasoning. Tax, retries, discounts and negotiated capacity are excluded. Novita AI publishes this page using public sources, without a private workload benchmark.

  1. Artificial Analysis · MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
  2. Artificial Analysis · Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
  3. Anthropic · Opus 5.5 pricing
  4. Novita AI · MiniMax-M3.1-Flash pricing

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