| Field | MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview |
|---|---|
| Model ID | MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview |
| Announced | September 27, 2026, by @MiniMax_AI and @MiniMaxAgent |
| Official description | "Frontier multimodal coding model with 1M context window and tunable thinking depth" |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Input | Text, image, video |
| Thinking | Always on; effort low, medium, high, xhigh, max, plus a default |
| Where to use it | MiniMax Code; Token Plan subscription key |
| Price | No per-token price published; Token Plan from about $22 per month |
| Model card, benchmarks, weights | None published |
MiniMax M3.1: What We Know So Far
MiniMax M3.1-Flash-Preview arrived four days after Space Bunny Alpha with a matching spec sheet. This page covers what MiniMax has published, what leaked and what is still unknown.
MiniMax M3.1 at a Glance
What MiniMax has actually published, as of September 30, 2026. Anything not in this table is either leaked or unknown.
What MiniMax Announced
MiniMax M3.1 did not arrive with a keynote. Developers first spotted MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview in the MiniMax Code model picker, and then the official accounts confirmed it on September 27, 2026: "MiniMax's latest text model, M3.1-Flash-Preview, debuts today on MiniMax Code. Built for everyday development, it's fast, reliable, and ready for real work, from quick bug fixes to feature building."
The framing matters. MiniMax positions MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview as an everyday coding model: fast turnarounds, bug fixes and feature work, rather than a flagship reasoning model. The "Flash" label fits that, and it suggests a larger, non-Flash MiniMax M3.1 may still be coming.
What MiniMax did not publish is almost as notable. There is no model card, no benchmark table, no parameter count, no open weights and no API price. For a lab that has open-sourced much of its M series, that silence looks like a staged rollout, and probably one where most of the real-world testing happened somewhere else.
The MiniMax M3.1 and Space Bunny Connection
Four days before the MiniMax M3.1 announcement, an anonymous model called Space Bunny Alpha appeared on OpenRouter with a spec sheet that now looks very familiar:
| Trait | Space Bunny Alpha (Sep 23) | MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview (Sep 27) |
|---|---|---|
| Context | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Input | Text, image, video | Text, image, video |
| Reasoning | Mandatory | Always on |
| Effort ladder | low → max (5 levels) | low → max (5 levels + default) |
| Pitch | Fast inference, strong coding | Fast, everyday development |
| Tokenizer | Matches MiniMax M2/M3 | MiniMax |
Three separate tokenizer tests matched Space Bunny to the MiniMax family on day one, and the r/opencode thread that found the match was titled simply "M3.1 is SpaceBunny." If that is right, then MiniMax M3.1 has already had a week of free public testing under a codename, and it ranked third in OpenRouter's weekly usage while doing it.
Caveat: A tokenizer match proves the family, not the version. MiniMax M2.7 matched too. The MiniMax M3.1 link rests on the spec match and the timing. See the full evidence breakdown.
What Leaked Before Launch
Three pieces of pre-launch material circulated before the official MiniMax M3.1 post. They are not equally strong:
- A private checkpoint. A Hugging Face repository named
MiniMax-M3.1-preview-private, with about 250 GB across 48 safetensors files and the architecture stringMiniMaxM3SparseForConditionalGeneration, was recorded in a partner onboarding spec. Its existence is corroborated by several sources, but its contents are not public. The public MiniMax repos return "not found" for any MiniMax M3.1 name. - An architecture note. A document dated September 22, 2026, which reads like a vendor note, was reproduced in a public partner-evaluation repo created the next day. It may be genuine, stale or partly invented. Treat its details with caution.
- A model watcher's tip. On September 26 a well-known account said MiniMax M3.1 was "the next upcoming model for coming week" and that they were already testing a preview.
MiniMax also said on August 26 that MiniMax M3.1 was nearly complete. The timeline runs in order: nearly done in late August, a private checkpoint and partner note on September 22, the anonymous Space Bunny listing on September 23, and the named MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview on September 27.
MiniMax M3.1 vs MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 is the model you can call today on OpenRouter and other gateways. It is an open-weight, 1M-context model with text, image and video input, and one of the few open models that holds a very long context together. Gateways list it at around $0.60 input and $2.40 output per million tokens, often discounted.
What MiniMax M3.1 changes is not yet documented. Based on the Space Bunny testing and the Flash label, the likely upgrades are faster inference, a five-step effort control and stronger agentic coding. Whether MiniMax M3.1 improves raw intelligence over MiniMax M3 is something only a model card or independent index will show.
How to Access MiniMax M3.1 Today
- MiniMax Code: sign in and choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview in the model picker.
- Token Plan: subscribe (from about $22 a month), then use your subscription key with the
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Previewmodel ID. Pay-as-you-go keys do not work yet. - Unofficially, for free: if the Space Bunny theory holds,
stealth/space-bunny-alphaon OpenRouter andopencode/space-bunny-freein OpenCode may give you the same model at $0 until the preview ends. See our free access guide.
MiniMax M3.1 FAQ
What is MiniMax M3.1?
MiniMax M3.1 is the next model in MiniMax's M series. Its first public form, MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview (model ID MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview), launched on September 27, 2026 in MiniMax Code as a fast multimodal coding model with a 1M-token context and tunable thinking.
How can I use MiniMax M3.1?
As of launch, MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview is available only inside MiniMax Code and through a MiniMax Token Plan with a subscription key. It is not on pay-as-you-go API billing. Space Bunny Alpha on OpenRouter may be the same model, free.
How much does MiniMax M3.1 cost?
MiniMax has not published a per-token price for MiniMax M3.1. Token Plan subscriptions start at about $22 per month. For reference, MiniMax M3 lists around $0.60 input and $2.40 output per million tokens.
Is MiniMax M3.1 the same as Space Bunny?
Unconfirmed but likely. Space Bunny Alpha matches the MiniMax tokenizer and has the same 1M context, always-on thinking and five effort levels as MiniMax M3.1 Flash Preview. Neither MiniMax nor OpenRouter has linked the two.
Will MiniMax M3.1 have open weights?
Unknown. MiniMax released open weights for MiniMax M3, and a private MiniMax M3.1 preview checkpoint exists on Hugging Face, but MiniMax has not announced a public MiniMax M3.1 release.
Does MiniMax M3.1 have benchmarks?
As of September 30, 2026, MiniMax has published no model card, parameter count or benchmark scores for MiniMax M3.1. Independent Space Bunny Alpha tests are the closest proxy.