MiniMax M3 vs Doubao Seed Evolving
MiniMax M3 wins on Overall, Coding; Doubao Seed Evolving wins on Multimodal. Every numeric field is compared below, with a worked monthly-cost example and a pick rule for each use case.
Verdict at a glance
Choose MiniMax M3 if you…
- Strong agent ability
- Open source
- Low price
- Best for: AI agents, Open source, Chinese
Choose Doubao Seed Evolving if you…
- Continuously updated
- 1M context
- Good Chinese
- ByteDance ecosystem
- Best for: Chinese, Long context, Continuously evolving
Head-to-head aggregate scores
Scores are 0–100, aggregated from public benchmark information and independently weighted across three leaderboards. Rank is out of 22 tracked models.
Aggregated from public sources and independently weighted; methodology on the Terms page. Scores within 3 points are treated as statistically tied.
Specs & pricing — every field side by side
List API prices in USD per 1M tokens. The highlighted cell is the stronger value/capability on that row.
| Dimension | MiniMax M3 | Doubao Seed Evolving | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | MiniMax (CN) | ByteDance (CN) | Different vendors |
| Released | 2026.06 | 2026.07 | Doubao Seed Evolving is newer |
| Overall (rank) | 70 · #13 | 68 · #15 | MiniMax M3 +2 |
| Coding | 68 · #13 | 67 · #14 | MiniMax M3 +1 |
| Multimodal | 70 · #18 | 83 · #9 | Doubao Seed Evolving +13 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M | Tie |
| Max output | 64K | 256K | MiniMax M3 longer |
| Effective-context | 90 | 92 | Doubao Seed Evolving more reliable |
| Input $/1M | $0.6 | $0.83 | MiniMax M3 cheaper |
| Output $/1M | $2.4 | $4.17 | MiniMax M3 cheaper |
| Cache discount | none | custom | Doubao Seed Evolving deeper |
| Speed | ~60 tok/s | ~60 tok/s | Tie |
| TTFT | 0.5s | 0.5s | Tie |
| Function calling | 84 | 82 | MiniMax M3 ahead |
| Refusal rate | ~7% | ~10% | MiniMax M3 less restrictive |
| English | 70 | 70 | Tie |
| Chinese | 88 | 93 | Doubao Seed Evolving |
| Modalities | text | text, image | different coverage |
| Open weights | Yes | No | MiniMax M3 is open |
| Fine-tuning | Yes | No | |
| Free tier | Hailuo AI free; open-platform quota | Doubao App free | |
| SOC2 / no-train | no / yes | no / yes | |
| Private deployment | Yes | Yes | Both support it |
Fields drawn from vendor public documentation and the Modelspectra 22-model dataset; speed varies with network, concurrency and prompt length. Verify current pricing before purchase.
Dimension-by-dimension analysis
Reasoning & overall intelligence
MiniMax M3 leads the overall aggregate by 2 points (70 vs 68). That is a meaningful, not marginal, edge on hard, multi-step reasoning, while Doubao Seed Evolving remains a strong generalist that is not out of its depth on routine work.
Agentic coding
This is a modest gap: MiniMax M3 scores 68 against 67. On multi-file edits, SWE-style tickets and long-horizon agent loops MiniMax M3 needs fewer correction turns; Doubao Seed Evolving is still competent for scripts and assisted completion but trails as task complexity rises.
Multimodal
Doubao Seed Evolving leads multimodal 83 vs 70. A concrete modality difference: Doubao Seed Evolving additionally handles image. Neither emits native video, so the comparison is about parsing images and documents, not generation.
Speed & latency
MiniMax M3 is faster in interactive use: ~60 tok/s with 0.5s TTFT versus ~60 tok/s with 0.5s TTFT (about 1.0× the throughput). For conversational UIs where perceived responsiveness drives retention, that edge is a real product factor even when raw reasoning is lower.
Context: window vs usable recall
Nominal windows are 1M for MiniMax M3 and 1M for Doubao Seed Evolving. Crucially, the larger nominal window does not win on usable recall: MiniMax M3 advertises 1M but Doubao Seed Evolving scores higher on effective-context (92 vs 90), i.e. it actually retains more of what it was given.
Price & total cost
MiniMax M3 is the cheaper API at $0.6/$2.4 versus Doubao Seed Evolving at $0.83/$4.17 per 1M input/output tokens — list input is about 1.4× lower.
Chinese vs English
English: MiniMax M3 70 vs Doubao Seed Evolving 70. Chinese: 88 vs 93. For Chinese-language production, Doubao Seed Evolving is the stronger pick. Note that non-Chinese models generally require overseas network access for their APIs.
Tool use & ecosystem
Function-calling score: MiniMax M3 84 vs Doubao Seed Evolving 82, so MiniMax M3 has the edge on structured tool use. Fine-tuning is available from MiniMax M3. Factor in existing SDK/plugin familiarity — switching cost often outweighs a few-point tool-use gap.
Cost worked example — same workload, real token math
Assume a production workload of 100M input + 30M output tokens per month, with 90% of input tokens served from cache. Figures use public list prices.
| Scenario · per month | MiniMax M3 | Doubao Seed Evolving | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| List priceno cache applied | $132100M in × $0.6 + 30M out × $2.4 | $208100M in × $0.83 + 30M out × $4.17 | 1.58×gap |
| With caching90% of inputs cache-hit | $132no published cache discount | $208no published cache discount | 1.58×gap |
Illustrative model; your input/output mix and cache-hit ratio change the result. Prices are list rates before any enterprise agreement.