Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M3?

MiniMax M3 has the lowest input price. Per 1M input tokens: Claude Sonnet 5.5 from $2.00 and MiniMax M3 from $0.30.

Which is smarter, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M3?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores highest on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: Claude Sonnet 5.5 54.2 and MiniMax M3 18.7.

Can I switch between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M3 without changing my code?

Yes. All of them are served through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching is a change of the model parameter (anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5, minimax/minimax-m3).

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax M3

Side-by-side pricing per provider, context window, benchmark scores and speed, all on one OpenAI-compatible API.

Estimate monthly cost for these models

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropicanthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5

MiniMax M3 Minimaxminimax/minimax-m3

Creator

Anthropic

Minimax

Released

Sep 28, 2026

May 31, 2026

Context window

Max output

128K

512K

Input / 1MLowest provider price

$2.00

$0.30

Output / 1MLowest provider price

$10.00

$1.20

Providers

IntelligenceArtificial Analysis index

54.2

18.7

LatencyMedian time to first token

—

3.1s

ThroughputMedian tokens per second

—

<1 t/s

Accepts

Text, Image

Text, Image, Video

Produces

Text

Tool calling

Yes

Structured output

Yes

Reasoning

Yes

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax M3: summary

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M3 are both available through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching between them is a change of model id, not a new integration.

Claude Sonnet 5.5, from Anthropic, has a 1,000,000-token context window, costs from $2.00/1M input and $10.00/1M output tokens across 3 providers and scores 54.2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

MiniMax M3, from Minimax, has a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $0.30/1M input and $1.20/1M output tokens and scores 18.7 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

MiniMax M3 is the cheapest on input, 6.7× cheaper than the next model and Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores highest for intelligence.

Switch with one line

client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.fastrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key="<FASTROUTER_API_KEY>") client.chat.completions.create(model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5", messages=[...]) # or client.chat.completions.create(model="minimax/minimax-m3", messages=[...])

Full API docs

Frequently asked questions

More comparisons

Benchmark scores sourced from ArtificialAnalysis