MiniMax launches M3.1 Flash, slashes AI output costs to $0.22 per task

MiniMax has released M3.1 Flash, a new reasoning model that scores 42 points on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, a 13-point improvement over its predecessor M3. The model costs less than half as much per task as M3, with output priced at $0.22 per task. M3.1 Flash ties with GLM-5.3-Flash on the Intelligence Index, outperforms Gemini 3.8 Flash (41 points), and trails Deepseek V4.1 Flash (45 points). It achieves 48 percent accuracy on Humanity's Last Exam, beating both Deepseek and GLM. On the CritPt benchmark, it scores 22 percent, ahead of GLM (15 percent) and Gemini (18 percent), but behind Deepseek (24 percent). For factual accuracy on the AA-Omniscience test, M3.1 Flash answers 56 percent of questions correctly, well above GLM (28 percent) and Deepseek (43 percent). The model uses fewer output tokens than rivals, bringing the cost per task down to about $0.22. MiniMax says it runs three times faster than M3. The model has a 93 percent hallucination rate as it attempts to answer every question rather than declining when uncertain.