# MiniMax M3 — API pricing & integration guide | Y-API

> MiniMax M3 is the multimodal successor to M2.7: text, image and video input, text output, and a 1M-token window aimed at long-horizon agentic and coding work. Unlike the free M2.7 entry it is billed per token.

This is the markdown representation of https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/minimax/minimax-m3. Generated by `scripts/generate-seo-assets.mjs` from the same copy the page renders — do not edit by hand.

Model ID: `minimax/minimax-m3`

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-11. Y-API catalog snapshot: 2026-10-11.

## Choosing this model

Selection advice by Y-API. The checks below are suggested evaluations, not published test results.

### Where to start

Try it on agent loops that have to run for many steps without losing the thread — a build-fix-retest cycle, or a data pipeline that must keep its invariants across transformations.

### What to watch for

The listed context window is the model’s, not a promise about what the gateway will accept; long inputs also get expensive fast. Video input in particular needs its own compatibility test before you build on it.

## Model specifications

These are OpenRouter model-level specifications, not a Y-API compatibility test. A particular route may accept fewer input formats, parameters or tokens. Verify the features you need with a small request; a successful text response does not validate vision or tool calling.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Input | Text, Image, Video |
| Output | Text |
| Listed on OpenRouter | 2026-05-31 |
| Parameters listed by OpenRouter | `frequency_penalty`, `include_reasoning`, `logit_bias`, `logprobs`, `max_tokens`, `min_p`, `presence_penalty`, `reasoning`, `repetition_penalty`, `response_format`, `seed`, `stop`, `structured_outputs`, `temperature`, `tool_choice`, `tools`, `top_k`, `top_logprobs`, `top_p` |

## API pricing & cost estimate

| Price basis | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Account credit | $0.30 | $1.20 |
| Cash equivalent | $0.03 | $0.12 |

$1 paid adds $10 of credit. Cash equivalent = credit consumed ÷ 10; this is not the model publisher’s list price.

Input tokens / request: 1000. Output tokens / request: 500. Number of requests: 1000.

Estimated credit consumed: $0.90. Estimated cash equivalent: $0.09.

Illustrative token budget, not measured usage or a quote. Includes input and output; excludes separate media charges, cache discounts and retries. Include billed reasoning tokens in your output budget where applicable. Actual billing follows usage returned by the service.

### Same token budget, different models

| Model | Estimated credit consumed | Estimated cash equivalent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [MiniMax M3](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/minimax/minimax-m3) | $0.90 | $0.09 |
| [MiniMax M2.7](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/minimax/minimax-m2.7) | Free — no credit deducted | Free — no credit deducted |
| [Qwen3.8 Flash](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/qwen/qwen3.8-flash) | $0.45 | $0.045 |

[View LLM API pricing & billing](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/pricing)

## API integration examples

These minimal, text-only requests use the exact Y-API model ID. They do not demonstrate image, audio, video, file or tool support. The output limit also needs room for reasoning; an empty answer with finish_reason=length can mean the budget was exhausted.

Set the TOKEN environment variable to a key from your console. Run this on your server or locally; never expose a key in browser code or a public repository.

### A task to try

A migration script must be safe to re-run. List the operations that would duplicate data on a second run and rewrite each one to be idempotent.

```bash
curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error --max-time 120 \
  'https://api.y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/v1/chat/completions' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN:?Set TOKEN first}" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @- <<'JSON'
{
  "model": "minimax/minimax-m3",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "A migration script must be safe to re-run. List the operations that would duplicate data on a second run and rewrite each one to be idempotent."
    }
  ],
  "max_tokens": 4096
}
JSON
```

```python
import json
import os
import sys
import urllib.error
import urllib.request

payload = {
  "model": "minimax/minimax-m3",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "A migration script must be safe to re-run. List the operations that would duplicate data on a second run and rewrite each one to be idempotent."
    }
  ],
  "max_tokens": 4096
}

request = urllib.request.Request(
    "https://api.y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/v1/chat/completions",
    data=json.dumps(payload).encode("utf-8"),
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["TOKEN"],
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    method="POST",
)
try:
    with urllib.request.urlopen(request, timeout=120) as response:
        result = json.load(response)
    print(json.dumps(result, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2))
except urllib.error.HTTPError as error:
    print(error.read().decode("utf-8"), file=sys.stderr)
    raise SystemExit(1)
```

### How to evaluate the result

Run the rewritten script twice against the same fixture and diff the results. Any difference between the two runs means an operation was not actually made idempotent.

## Before you choose

### Is M3 simply a bigger M2.7?

No. M3 adds image and video input and a much longer context window, and it is a paid entry where M2.7 is free. Treat it as a different model to evaluate, not a drop-in upgrade.

## Sources & scope

Technical facts come from the cited model page and, where available, its linked publisher card. A card describes that checkpoint; it is not proof of the weights a gateway serves. Prices come only from the Y-API catalog. We do not claim measured latency, uptime or benchmark scores for this endpoint.

- [OpenRouter model page & specifications](https://openrouter.ai/minimax/minimax-m3)
- [Publisher model card linked by OpenRouter](https://huggingface.co/MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3)
- [Y-API catalog & prices (JSON)](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models.json)

## Models to compare

Compare these alternatives on the same inputs. Their descriptions explain different roles; a lower price does not establish equivalent quality.

### [MiniMax M2.7](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/minimax/minimax-m2.7)

MiniMax M2.7 is a text model centered on agentic productivity: debugging, root-cause analysis and multi-step professional work. Its published examples involve external tools; a completion alone does not execute that workflow.

### [Qwen3.8 Flash](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/qwen/qwen3.8-flash)

Qwen3.8 Flash is Alibaba’s multimodal reasoning entry for text, images and video in the OpenRouter catalog. It brings document and chart understanding into the same model selection as coding assistance and long-context analysis.

## Links

- HTML version of this page: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/minimax/minimax-m3
- Site index for agents: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/llms.txt
- Full reference (single file): https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/llms-full.txt
- OpenAPI 3.1 spec: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/openapi.json
- Model catalog (JSON, no key needed): https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models.json
- API base URL: `https://api.y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/v1`
- Contact: support@bestvirtualgoods.com
- Model catalog: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models
- Integration guide: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/docs