StarAPI

gemini-3.6-flash vs MiniMax-M3

	gemini-3.6-flash	MiniMax-M3
Providers	—	—
Input $/M	$1.50	$0.64
Output $/M	$7.50	$2.55
Output multiplier	×5.00	×4.00
Context window	—	—
Intelligence index	40.3	35.7
Coding index	69.2	58.6

What the numbers mean

MiniMax-M3 is roughly 2.4× cheaper on input than gemini-3.6-flash. If your workload passes the quality bar on the cheaper model, that gap compounds across every request; route to gemini-3.6-flash deliberately rather than by default.

On measured intelligence index the gap is 4.6 points, with gemini-3.6-flash ahead. That is a large enough spread to be visible on multi-step tasks.

Code

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://starseaapi.com/v1", api_key="sk-...")

# gemini-3.6-flash
client.chat.completions.create(model="gemini-3.6-flash", messages=[{"role":"user","content":"Hi"}])

# MiniMax-M3
client.chat.completions.create(model="MiniMax-M3", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hi"}])

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