AllocateMeta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs MiniMax M3
On provider list prices, MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens against $3.50 for Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct: 11.7x apart. Output is $1.20 against $3.50 (2.9x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.
Meta Llama 3.1 405B InstructM MiniMax M3Specifications 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 $5,425 on Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct at list: a gap of $4,645, or 7.0x.
MiniMax M3 reads 512K tokens per request against 4K for Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct, 128.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct for
- Open weights you can fine-tune and own
Choose MiniMax M3 for
- The lower list price ($0.30 in / $1.20 out per M tokens)
- The longer context window (512K vs 4K tokens)
- Published cached-input pricing ($0.06 per M tokens)
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct 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 $3.50/$3.50 for Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct. Billed on Allocate: $0.32/$1.28 against $3.75/$3.75, list plus 7%.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax M3: 524,288 tokens (512K) against 4,096 (4K) for Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Can I fine-tune Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct or MiniMax M3?
Meta Llama 3.1 405B Instruct publishes open weights (Llama community) and can be fine-tuned on your own data. MiniMax M3 is a closed model served over API; its weights are not available.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.