Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs MiniMax: MiniMax M3 benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs MiniMax: MiniMax M3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (MiniMax) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 17, 2026. MiniMax: MiniMax M3 wins on output price at $1.2/1M. MiniMax: MiniMax M3 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Workhorse Anthropic model: most of Opus coding quality at a mid-tier price.

Sonnet 4.5Elo 1,524$15/1M out

MiniMax

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (minimax/minimax-m3). Preview until a second source matches.

$1.2/1M out

Model Lineage & Multi-Tier Derivatives🇺🇸 US Frontier

Claude 4 Series Family (5 models)

Compare vs Base (Claude Opus 4.5)

Claude Opus 4.5

Anthropic

Flagship Base

CoT Scaler

Elo

1568

Speed

62 tok/s

Price

$25.00 / 1M

View model →vs this

Claude Opus 4.6

Anthropic

Opus 4.6

CoT Scaler

Elo

1574

Speed

64 tok/s

Price

$25.00 / 1M

+6 Elo0% cost

View model →vs this

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Anthropic

Sonnet 4.5

Elo

1524

Speed

88 tok/s

Price

$15.00 / 1M

-44 Elo-40% cost1.4x speed

Viewing now

Claude Opus 4.8

Anthropic

Opus 4.8

CoT Scaler

Elo

1598

Speed

66 tok/s

Price

$25.00 / 1M

+30 Elo0% cost1.1x speed

View model →vs this

Claude Haiku 4.5

Anthropic

Haiku 4.5

Elo

1438

Speed

175 tok/s

Price

$5.00 / 1M

-130 Elo-80% cost2.8x speed

View model →vs this

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Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (7)vsMiniMax: MiniMax M3 (3)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 7W (70%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax: MiniMax M3: 3W (30%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax: MiniMax M3 →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs—

Coding Elo

1,531vs—

SWE-bench

70.1%vs—

LiveBench

67.4%vs—

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs—

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 5WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs—

Time to first token

240 msvs—

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 0W

MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$1.2/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Sonnet 4.5 4/6

Preference Elo

No shared data

Throughput Speed

No shared data

Token Price Efficiency

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

$13.80/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,524

EloHigh is better

—

Code Elo

High is better

1,531

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

67.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

—

SWE-bench

High is better

70.1%

SWE-benchHigh is better

—

GPQA

High is better

80.2%

GPQAHigh is better

—

TTFT

Low is better

240 ms

TTFTLow is better

—

Speed

High is better

88 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

—

In $

Low is better

$3.00 / 1M

In $Low is better

$0.30 / 1M+900%

Out $

Low is better

$15.00 / 1M

Out $Low is better

$1.20 / 1M+1150%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

1M+5%

Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 91% with MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Sonnet 4.5$330.00 / mo

In: $105Out: $225

MiniMax: MiniMax M3$28.50 / mo

In: $10.5Out: $18

Estimated Cost Delta

MiniMax: MiniMax M3 is estimated to save $301.50/month ($3,618/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
MiniMax: MiniMax M3:Pick MiniMax: MiniMax M3 when you are optimizing output cost.
2
MiniMax: MiniMax M3:Pick MiniMax: MiniMax M3 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatMiniMax: MiniMax M3

Lower output list price ($1.2/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGMiniMax: MiniMax M3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	MiniMax: MiniMax M3	Lower output list price ($1.2/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	MiniMax: MiniMax M3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchFeb 18, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Most of Opus 4.5 coding at a mid-tier price. Sonnet 5 replaced it as the buy; 4.5 remains a compare baseline.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Elo 1,524

LiveBench67.4%

SWE-bench70.1%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

MiniMax

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Elo n/a

LiveBench—

SWE-bench—

Speed—

Output cost$1.2/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?: We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?: SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: MiniMax: MiniMax M3 output tokens are $1.2/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?: We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?: MiniMax: MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4.5 matchups →|All MiniMax: MiniMax M3 matchups →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (next sonnet)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs MiniMax: MiniMax M3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (7)vsMiniMax: MiniMax M3 (3)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 7W (70%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax: MiniMax M3: 3W (30%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax: MiniMax M3 →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs—

Coding Elo

1,531vs—

SWE-bench

70.1%vs—

LiveBench

67.4%vs—

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs—

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 5WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs—

Time to first token

240 msvs—

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 0W

MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$1.2/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WMiniMax: MiniMax M3: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatMiniMax: MiniMax M3

Lower output list price ($1.2/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGMiniMax: MiniMax M3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	MiniMax: MiniMax M3	Lower output list price ($1.2/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	MiniMax: MiniMax M3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?

We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?

SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

MiniMax: MiniMax M3 output tokens are $1.2/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3?

We do not have TTFT for both models.

Which has the larger context window?

MiniMax: MiniMax M3 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Claude 4 Series Family (5 models)

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

No shared data

No shared data

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4.5

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Claude 4 Series Family (5 models)

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

No shared data

No shared data

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4.5

MiniMax: MiniMax M3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons