MiniMax: MiniMax M3 API Pricing
MiniMax: MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens (cache reads: $0.060). Context window: 1.0M. Prices verified 2026-10-21 · source
Alternatives to consider
81% cheaper with nearly identical quality (43.4 vs 45)
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High adoption means battle-tested weights, more fine-tunes/quants, and faster bug fixes. View on HuggingFace →
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Intelligence measures reasoning/knowledge/coding benchmarks. A high score with a low blended price = value pick; check the value chart to see where this model lands.
Token economics
| Token type | Price | vs base input |
|---|---|---|
| Standard input | $0.300 | — |
| Cache read | $0.060 | −80% |
| Output | $1.20 | — |
Prompt caching stores repeated context server-side: reads cost far less, but writes carry a one-time premium.
Higher effort = deeper thinking = more reasoning tokens billed as output.
What would MiniMax: MiniMax M3 cost you per month?
| Workload | Requests/mo | Avg tokens (in/out) | Est. monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light chatbot | 10,000 | 800 / 400 | $7.20 |
| Coding agent | 5,000 | 8,000 / 2,000 | $24.00 |
| RAG pipeline | 30,000 | 4,000 / 500 | $54.00 |
| Doc summarizer | 2,000 | 20,000 / 1,000 | $14.40 |
Estimates use list prices without prompt caching. Caching can cut input cost by up to 90% on repeated context.
About MiniMax: 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,...
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Popular head-to-heads — see all on the comparisons index.
Frequently asked questions
How much does MiniMax: MiniMax M3 cost?
MiniMax: MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens; cached input tokens cost $0.060 per 1M. Verified 2026-10-21 — provider source.
What is the context window?
1.0M tokens, with up to 512K output tokens per response. That's roughly 1311 pages of text in a single request.
Does it support prompt caching?
Yes — cached input is $0.060/1M, about 80% cheaper than standard input. Agents and RAG workloads with repeated context benefit most.
What's a cheaper alternative?
ScaleDown: Summarize saves about 95% on a typical workload with comparable quality.
Official resources
- MiniMax: MiniMax M3 on OpenRouter — live endpoint, pricing source of record.
- Artificial Analysis benchmarks → — independent intelligence and performance analysis.
- Shred your current bill — paste a CSV and see if switching saves money.