# DeepSeek V4 vs MiniMax M3

On provider list prices, MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens against $1.74 for DeepSeek V4: 5.8x apart. Output is $1.20 against $3.48 (2.9x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.

## Specifications

| | DeepSeek V4 | MiniMax M3 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lab | Deepseek | MiniMaxAI |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 512K tokens | 512K tokens |
| List price, input | $1.74 / M tokens | $0.30 / M tokens |
| List price, output | $3.48 / M tokens | $1.20 / M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.20 / M tokens | $0.06 / M tokens |
| License | Proprietary API | Proprietary API |
| Fine-tunable | No | No |

Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-08. Billed price is list plus the 7% transaction fee.

## What the numbers say

Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $780 a month on MiniMax M3 and $3,306 on DeepSeek V4 at list: a gap of $2,526, or 4.2x.

MiniMax M3 reads 512K tokens per request against 512K for DeepSeek V4, 1.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.

## Choose DeepSeek V4 for

- Reasoning-heavy agents
- Long-document analysis
- Cost-sensitive production routes

## Choose MiniMax M3 for

- The lower list price ($0.30 in / $1.20 out per M tokens)
- The longer context window (512K vs 512K tokens)

## Common questions

### Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 or MiniMax M3?

MiniMax M3, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.30/$1.20 per million tokens in and out against $1.74/$3.48 for DeepSeek V4. Billed on Allocate: $0.32/$1.28 against $1.86/$3.72, list plus 7%.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M3: 524,288 tokens (512K) against 512,000 (512K) for DeepSeek V4.

### Can I fine-tune DeepSeek V4 or MiniMax M3?

No. Both are closed models served over API. If you want a model you can train and own, start from an open-weights base in the catalog.

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[HTML page](https://allocate.network/compare/deepseek-v4-vs-minimaxai-minimax-m3) · [DeepSeek V4](https://allocate.network/models/deepseek-v4.md) · [MiniMax M3](https://allocate.network/models/minimaxai-minimax-m3.md) · [Machine-readable catalog](https://allocate.network/catalog.json)