Short answer
Use the API when software needs metered model calls. Use M Plan or MiniMax Code when you want MiniMax's subscription product or coding environment. Keep those bills separate, and estimate API usage before sending a workload.
Name, model ID, and current availability
The official launch table and product guide use MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. The October 19 announcement says the generally available model is offered through the MiniMax API, M Plan, and MiniMax Code. Account, region, app version, and model availability can still affect what you can select.
The vendor describes a one-million-token context window, always-on reasoning with adjustable effort, and text, image, and video input with text output. Those are vendor-documented capabilities, not results reproduced by OpenDots.
API access is not the same as a subscription
| Access path | What you buy | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Developer API | Metered requests billed by token categories. | Apps, scripts, agents, and your own integrations. |
| M Plan | A MiniMax subscription product with its own plan terms. | Use through supported MiniMax product surfaces. |
| MiniMax Code | MiniMax's coding work environment and account access. | Repository tasks, debugging, and tool-assisted coding. |
An M Plan subscription is not an API token balance. API spending is not a MiniMax Code subscription. Check the checkout or developer console for the terms attached to the path you choose.
Published API rates and cache accounting
MiniMax lists flat rates per one million tokens: $0.15 input, $0.60 output, and $0.015 cached input. The cached rate is one-tenth of the ordinary input rate.
For the calculator below, “uncached input” means only input tokens billed at the ordinary rate. “Cached input” means only tokens reported and billed at the cached-input rate. Do not paste a total-input count into the first field and then repeat its cached portion in the second field—that would double count those tokens.
Estimate one API request
This runs entirely in your browser. It sends no token counts or credentials anywhere. The estimate is uncached input × $0.15 / 1M + cached input × $0.015 / 1M + output × $0.60 / 1M. Your provider invoice is authoritative.
Coding tasks that fit the documented strengths
The official materials emphasize software development, long multi-step execution, tool use, and visual analysis. Reasonable candidates include reading a repository, tracing a reproducible bug, implementing a bounded feature, reviewing a patch, profiling a web interface, or turning supplied visual references into interactive code.
Provide the repository, reproduction steps, acceptance criteria, and required tests. Treat security findings as assisted analysis and verify them independently. The vendor publishes benchmark and case-study results, but this guide does not turn those into a promise for your codebase.
A practical evaluation before scaling
- Confirm that your chosen product exposes
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. - Run one small, non-sensitive task with explicit acceptance criteria.
- Record the actual input, cached-input, and output usage categories returned by your billing surface.
- Compare the patch and tests with a baseline you trust.
- Only then estimate a larger workload with the calculator.
No API key belongs in this page. Keep developer credentials in the environment or secret store recommended by your own client and deployment platform.
FAQ
Are MiniMax M3 1 Flash and MiniMax 3.1 Flash different models?
No. They are informal spellings. The official model name shown by MiniMax is MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.
Does M Plan include API usage?
Do not assume that. M Plan, MiniMax Code, and the metered developer API are distinct access paths with their own terms.
How should I enter cached tokens?
Enter uncached input and cached input separately. If your usage report gives total input plus a cached subset, subtract the cached subset from total input before entering the uncached-input field.
Does the calculator call MiniMax?
No. It is browser-side arithmetic only and collects no key or usage data.
Did OpenDots benchmark this model?
No. Capability statements are attributed to MiniMax's official materials; no paid request or independent performance test was run for this guide.