DeepSeek V4 Flash vs MiniMax M3

As of October 21, 2026, DeepSeek V4 Flash and MiniMax M3 cost the same: $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, and both have a 1M-token context window.

Prices from LiteLLM's price fileChecked October 21, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs MiniMax M3 side by side

Headline prices in US dollars per 1M tokens: each model's own lab where it sells it, otherwise its cheapest provider. Source: LiteLLM model price file, as of October 21, 2026.
	DeepSeek V4 Flash	MiniMax M3
Input, per 1M tokens	$0.30	$0.30
Output, per 1M tokens	$1.20	$1.20
Cache read, per 1M tokens	$0.006	$0.06
Cache write, per 1M tokens	$0	–
Context window	1,000,000 tokens	1,000,000 tokens
Max output	393,216 tokens	128,000 tokens
Image input	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Structured output (JSON)	Yes	Yes
Prompt caching	Yes	Yes
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Providers on LiteLLM	23	10
Price shown is from	DeepSeek	MiniMax
Added to LiteLLM	June 2026	June 2026

Cheapest provider for each

DeepSeek V4 Flash: DeepInfra at $0.08 input and $0.18 output per 1M tokens (deepinfra/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731)
MiniMax M3: Weights & Biases at $0.23 input and $0.96 output per 1M tokens (wandb/MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3)

Benchmark scores

From the Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub (CC BY 4.0), data as of August 27, 2026. Some results were run by Epoch and others collected by Epoch from each benchmark's own leaderboard, linked in the first column. Each model's best reported reasoning setting is shown in brackets. Higher is better. Only benchmarks with a score for both models are shown.
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4 Flash	MiniMax M3
Coding and agents
FrontierCode	18.8%	14.7%
Reasoning and knowledge
GPQA Diamond	91.0% (max)	90.9%
Math
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	94.4% (max)	71.1%

When to pick which

Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash for

Returns up to 393,216 tokens per response, vs 128,000.
Available from 23 providers through LiteLLM, vs 10.

From differences in the data above only; where the data is equal, no reason is given.

Call DeepSeek V4 Flash or MiniMax M3 with LiteLLM

Both use the OpenAI format through LiteLLM, so switching is a model name change. Set each provider's API key in the environment first.

Python SDK

from litellm import completion

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]

# DeepSeek V4 Flash
response = completion(model="deepseek-v4-flash", messages=messages)

# MiniMax M3
response = completion(model="minimax/MiniMax-M3", messages=messages)

# DeepSeek V4 Flash, falling back to MiniMax M3 if the call fails
response = completion(model="deepseek-v4-flash", messages=messages, fallbacks=["minimax/MiniMax-M3"])

FAQ

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Flash or MiniMax M3?

They cost the same: $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, as of October 21, 2026.

Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Flash or MiniMax M3?

Both have a 1,000,000-token context window.

Can I switch from DeepSeek V4 Flash to MiniMax M3 without changing my code?

Yes. Through LiteLLM both use the OpenAI format, so switching means changing the model name from "deepseek-v4-flash" to "minimax/MiniMax-M3", or pointing a LiteLLM gateway model alias at the other model. You can also use one as a fallback for the other.