GPT-5.6 Luna Max vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash compared

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash leads the intelligence index 29.1 to 23.8. Price per token, response speed and when to pick each.

Metric	GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)	MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Intelligence Index	23.8	29.1
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.20	$0.15
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$1.20	$0.60
Output speed (tokens/s)	125	147
Time to first token	108s	1.0s
Release date	2026-07-09	2026-10-19

Metric

GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash

Intelligence Index

23.8

29.1

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.20

$0.15

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$1.20

$0.60

Output speed (tokens/s)

125

147

Time to first token

108s

1.0s

Release date

2026-07-09

2026-10-19

Here is how GPT-5.6 Luna (Max), built by OpenAI, lines up against MiniMax-M3.1-Flash from MiniMax. The widest gap is the wait for the first token: 1.0 seconds for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash against 108 seconds for GPT-5.6 Luna Max. Everything below is read from the benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's catalogue; nothing here comes from a hands-on test.

Throughput and time to first token

Measured output speed is 125 tokens per second for GPT-5.6 Luna Max and 147 tokens per second for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is ahead by 18% on throughput. Time to first token is 108 seconds for GPT-5.6 Luna Max and 1.0 seconds for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. In an interactive app, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash will feel noticeably more responsive. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

Put together, a 1,500-token answer would take about 2.0 minutes from GPT-5.6 Luna Max and 11 seconds from MiniMax-M3.1-Flash, counting the first-token wait.

Release timing

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash arrived on October 19, 2026, about 3 months after GPT-5.6 Luna Max (July 9, 2026).

The headline benchmark

GPT-5.6 Luna Max records 23.8 on the intelligence index and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash records 29.1. That is a clear margin for an index that averages many evaluations.

Among 109 active scored models, GPT-5.6 Luna Max sits 70th and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash 59th.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Cost: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is cheaper

The list prices are $0.20 in and $1.20 out for GPT-5.6 Luna Max, and $0.15 in and $0.60 out for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash, per million tokens. GPT-5.6 Luna Max costs twice as much per output token.

For a sample workload of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens, GPT-5.6 Luna Max would cost $0.44 and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash $0.27, a difference of $0.17. Scale it up to summarising 1,000 documents of 8,000 tokens into 400-token summaries and the bill is $2.08 for GPT-5.6 Luna Max against $1.44 for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. Blended at three input tokens per output token, the effective rates are $0.45 for GPT-5.6 Luna Max and $0.262 for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.

Cost per point of intelligence

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.019 for GPT-5.6 Luna Max and $0.0090 for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash, per million tokens. With the higher score and the lower cost per point, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is the better value per point on these numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M3.1-Flash better than GPT-5.6 Luna Max?

Where the data separates them, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is ahead each time: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores higher on the intelligence index, 29.1 to 23.8; MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 42% cheaper on blended price; and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash streams output 1.2 times as fast.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

When were GPT-5.6 Luna Max and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash released?

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is newer. It was released on October 19, 2026, about 3 months after GPT-5.6 Luna Max (July 9, 2026).

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Luna Max or MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is cheaper on a blended basis. GPT-5.6 Luna Max lists $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M3.1-Flash lists $0.15 and $0.60. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.44 against $0.27.

Which model has lower latency?

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash generates output faster, at 147 tokens per second against 125 tokens per second. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash reaches its first token sooner (1.0 seconds against 108 seconds).

Final whistle

Bottom line: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash wins every category the data separates; GPT-5.6 Luna Max would need an advantage that is not in the catalogue. Pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash if users are waiting on the first word and you need the higher overall score (29.1 against 23.8). Pick GPT-5.6 Luna Max only if your own tests show an advantage the recorded data does not.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.