MiniMax-M3.1-Flash vs Muse Spark Open compared

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash leads the intelligence index 29.1 to 24.9. Price per token, response speed and when to pick each.

Metric	MiniMax-M3.1-Flash	Muse Spark Open (Xhigh)
Intelligence Index	29.1	24.9
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.15	$1.25
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.60	$4.25
Output speed (tokens/s)	147	207
Time to first token	1.0s	0.94s
Release date	2026-10-19	2026-10-15

Metric

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash

Muse Spark Open (Xhigh)

Intelligence Index

29.1

24.9

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.15

$1.25

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.60

$4.25

Output speed (tokens/s)

147

207

Time to first token

1.0s

0.94s

Release date

2026-10-19

2026-10-15

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (MiniMax) and Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) (Meta) meet here on their recorded benchmark, price and speed data. The clearest gap is on the bill: Muse Spark Open is 7.6 times the blended price of MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. What follows is built entirely from tracked data, so where the catalogue is silent, this page says so instead of guessing.

Running costs

Per million tokens, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash charges $0.15 for input and $0.60 for output, while Muse Spark Open charges $1.25 and $4.25. For output tokens, Muse Spark Open is 7.1 times the price of MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $0.27 on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and $2.10 on Muse Spark Open. A bigger example, writing 2,000 drafts of 2,000 output tokens from 300-token prompts, costs $2.49 on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and $17.75 on Muse Spark Open: a gap of $15.26.

Which is newer

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash arrived on October 19, 2026, 4 days after Muse Spark Open (October 15, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

How the intelligence index compares

On the intelligence index, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores 29.1 against 24.9 for Muse Spark Open. It is a meaningful gap rather than a rounding difference.

For context, that places MiniMax-M3.1-Flash 59th and Muse Spark Open 68th out of 109 scored models still on offer.

There are no coding or math index scores for either model in the catalogue, which keeps this comparison at the aggregate level.

Cost per point of intelligence

A blunt value measure, blended price over intelligence score, puts MiniMax-M3.1-Flash at $0.0090 and Muse Spark Open at $0.080 per point. With the higher score and the lower cost per point, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is the better value per point on these numbers.

Throughput and time to first token

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash generates about 147 tokens per second and Muse Spark Open about 207 tokens per second. That makes Muse Spark Open roughly 1.4 times as fast at writing. Time to first token is 1.0 seconds for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and 0.94 seconds for Muse Spark Open.

Put together, a 1,000-token answer would take about 7.8 seconds from MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and 5.8 seconds from Muse Spark Open, counting the first-token wait.

Common questions about MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and Muse Spark Open

Is Muse Spark Open better than MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

It depends on what you need: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash scores higher on the intelligence index, 29.1 to 24.9; MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 87% cheaper on blended price; and Muse Spark Open streams output 1.4 times as fast.

Which is faster, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash or Muse Spark Open?

Muse Spark Open generates output faster, at 207 tokens per second against 147 tokens per second. Time to first token is similar: 1.0 seconds and 0.94 seconds.

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.

Who makes MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and Muse Spark Open?

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is made by MiniMax and Muse Spark Open by Meta. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash was released on October 19, 2026 and Muse Spark Open on October 15, 2026.

Is Muse Spark Open cheaper than MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is cheaper on a blended basis. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash lists $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Muse Spark Open lists $1.25 and $4.25. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.27 against $2.10.

Final whistle

In one line: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash has more going for it here, but Muse Spark Open is not without an argument. Pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash if cost matters ($0.60 against $4.25 per million output tokens) and you need the higher overall score (29.1 against 24.9). Pick Muse Spark Open if long outputs need to finish quickly.

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 MiniMax-M3.1-Flash and Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.