MiniMax M3 vs Grok 4.5
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-07-30-011508720696 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,434.8299% of row best · rating · minimax-m3; 95% CI [1426.45297239, 1443.17975284]; votes 6263; rank 26 | 1,453.73100% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1441.93744334, 1465.52785378]; votes 2435; rank 20 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,435.2099% of row best · rating · minimax-m3; 95% CI [1430.86827835, 1439.53977389]; votes 44544; rank 77 | 1,451.82100% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1446.90989155, 1456.73122428]; votes 25873; rank 39 |
| LMArena Vision Arenavision-2026-08-27-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,255.4297% of row best · rating · minimax-m3; 95% CI [1247.93588333, 1262.90862002]; votes 13390; rank 44 | 1,291.11100% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1282.25469345, 1299.96666150]; votes 6401; rank 22 |
| LiveBench2026-06-25 · overall · leader | 70.2688% of row best · percent · minimax-m3 · 15,530 output tokens / case | 80.01100% of row best · percent · grok-4.5 · 10,517 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 1 tie | 0 benchmark wins | 3 benchmark winsOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | MiniMax-M3 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | MiniMax | xAI |
| Family | Minimax M3 | Grok 4 |
| Model | MiniMax-M3 | Grok 4.5 |
| Version | MiniMax-M3 | Grok 4.5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-06-01 | 2026-07-16 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,049K | 500K |
| Total parameters | 427B | Unknown |
| Active parameters | 23B | Unknown |
| License | other | Unknown |
| Open weights | Yes | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard), Fireworks Ai (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) | Xai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
14 comparable fields · 10 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
MiniMax M3 Capabilities
Grok 4.5 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
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|---|---|---|---|
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MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
MiniMax M3 vs Grok 4.5 FAQs
Is MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both MiniMax M3 and Grok 4.5, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
MiniMax M3 is $0.28 and Grok 4.5 is $2.00 per million tokens, so MiniMax M3 is cheaper on this metric. MiniMax M3 is $1.10 and Grok 4.5 is $6.00 per million tokens, so MiniMax M3 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
MiniMax M3 has the larger sourced context window. MiniMax M3 supports 1,049K and Grok 4.5 supports 500K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
Grok 4.5 leads the current overall benchmark count. The result uses 4 protocol-matched benchmarks from 2 publishers; it is not a universal quality score.
Can MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5 be self-hosted?+
MiniMax M3 is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. MiniMax M3 is open weight; Grok 4.5 is not marked open weight.
Can MiniMax M3 and Grok 4.5 understand images?+
MiniMax M3 is documented with image input; Grok 4.5 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. MiniMax M3 is — and Grok 4.5 is —.
Do MiniMax M3 and Grok 4.5 support reasoning and tool use?+
MiniMax M3: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Grok 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
MiniMax M3 has 5 sourced provider routes; Grok 4.5 has 1, so MiniMax M3 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, MiniMax M3 or Grok 4.5?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.