Minimax M3 API Pricing
Minimax M3 costs $0.3 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens on MiniMax's API. Cached input is billed at $0.06 per 1M tokens. Prices are provider list prices in USD, refreshed as sources update; see the Minimax M3 model profile for capability scores.
Price List
| Rate | Price (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.3 | per 1M tokens |
| Output | $1.20 | per 1M tokens |
| Cached input (read) | $0.06 | per 1M tokens |
| Blended input + output | $1.50 | 1M in + 1M out at list price |
| Context window | 1M tokens |
What a Workload Costs
Computed straight from the list prices above — token counts are illustrative workload sizes, not measurements of Minimax M3.
| Workload | Cost | Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Short chat turn | $0.00090 | 1K in / 500 out |
| Summarize a long document | $0.032 | 100K in / 2K out |
| Agentic coding session | $0.270 | 500K in / 100K out |
| 1M input + 1M output tokens | $1.50 | 1M in / 1M out |
Effective Cost
In AI IQ's scoring, Minimax M3's list price is adjusted by a token-usage multiplier of 3.826 (measured from real benchmark runs), giving an effective cost of $5.74 per 1M input + output tokens. That places it #68 of 117 models on the effective-cost ranking (lower is cheaper). Some models spend far more tokens than others on the same task, so effective cost compares what a unit of work really costs. Method details are on the methodology page; see all models on the cost charts and the falling cost of intelligence over time.
Cheaper Alternatives at Similar Capability
Models with a lower effective cost that score within a few IQ points of Minimax M3 (IQ 114), or better.
| Model | Provider | IQ | Effective Cost / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muse Spark 1.2 | Meta | 122 | $4.19 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | 121 | $4.99 |
| muse-spark-1.1 | Meta | 119 | $4.19 |
| kimi-k2.6 | Kimi | 119 | $4.50 |
| kimi-k2.7-code | Kimi | 118 | $3.73 |
| mimo-v2.5-pro | Xiaomi | 116 | $1.80 |