{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-10-20T02:15:00+02:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash","date":"2026-10-19","date_precision":"day","short_title":"MiniMax releases M3.1 Flash, revealed as OpenRouter's stealth 'Space Bunny'","deck":"$0.15/$0.60 per 1M tokens, DeepSWE 73.7%, weights due Oct 23","takeaway":"On Oct 19, 2026 MiniMax released M3.1 Flash (API id MiniMax-M3.1-Flash), an agent and coding model priced at $0.15 input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens, about a third of MiniMax-M3's cost and three times its speed.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"MiniMax: M3.1 Flash launch blog","url":"https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"minimax.io"},{"n":2,"title":"MiniMax on X: M3.1 Flash, 'Space Performance + Bunny Speed' (Oct 19)","url":"https://x.com/MiniMax_AI/status/2112150867868541221","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"x.com"},{"n":3,"title":"OpenRouter on X: stealth model reveal, Space Bunny is M3.1 Flash","url":"https://x.com/OpenRouter/status/2112152045461680591","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Hacker News discussion (210 points)","url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50154540","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"news.ycombinator.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-10-19","updated":"2026-10-19","orgs":["MiniMax"],"title":"MiniMax releases M3.1 Flash, revealed as OpenRouter's stealth 'Space Bunny': $0.15/$0.60 per 1M tokens, DeepSWE 73.7%, weights due Oct 23","summary":"On Oct 19, 2026 MiniMax released M3.1 Flash (API id MiniMax-M3.1-Flash), an agent and coding model priced at $0.15 input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens, about a third of MiniMax-M3's cost and three times its speed. MiniMax reports 73.7% on DeepSWE v1.1, 61.7 on OSWorld V2 and 29.6 on Agents' Last Exam. It was the stealth model \"Space Bunny\", OpenRouter's #1 model for 10 days. Weights: Oct 23.","key_facts":["API id: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash; available via the MiniMax API, M Plan and MiniMax Code (desktop); free on OpenRouter for 72 hours from Oct 19","Price (flat): $0.15 input / $0.60 output per 1M tokens; cache reads $0.015/1M. MiniMax: 1/3 the cost of M3 and ~3x faster; agentic task cost ~70% lower than its predecessor; 200+ tokens/s output, P50 170+ tokens/s","Benchmarks (MiniMax, self-reported): DeepSWE v1.1 73.7%; OSWorld V2 61.7 (first among Chinese models); Agents' Last Exam 29.6 (first among Chinese models); BankerToolBench 76.2; CyberGym 82%; AutomationBench 62% and BabyVision 91% (X post)","Space Bunny: MiniMax says the stealth model 'Space Bunny' (200T+ tokens) was an earlier version; OpenRouter says it was its #1 model for 10 straight days, processed 56.7T tokens (the most of any stealth model it has run) and left OpenRouter on Oct 5","Weights: MiniMax's X post says 'Model weights will arrive on Oct 23'; the blog says 'later'. License and context window not stated in the launch post. A larger 'Pro' model is planned, no date","Reach: MiniMax's launch post had ~804k views on Oct 19 (fxtwitter); HN thread 210 points"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["llm","agents","coding","computer-use","china","cheap-models","open-weights"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nMiniMax launched M3.1 Flash as a cheap, fast model for agent work (office automation, coding, computer use, security tasks). A preview,\nMiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview, had been available since late September only inside MiniMax's subscription plans; this release adds a public\nper-token price. MiniMax and OpenRouter both confirmed that the anonymous \"Space Bunny\" model that topped OpenRouter's usage charts in\nlate September and early October was an earlier version. All benchmark numbers are MiniMax's own.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt continues the Chinese price war on agent models: on the same weekend DeepSeek shipped V4.1-Flash-1017 under MIT, and M3.1 Flash\nundercuts MiniMax's own M3 by two-thirds. Its stealth run showed developers chose it in volume before they knew who made it.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-17-deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-17-deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017/","date":"2026-10-17","date_precision":"day","short_title":"DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 update: big agentic-coding gains, same price","deck":null,"takeaway":"V4.1-Flash was already the open-weight model many developers used as a cheap coding agent.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":11,"official":5,"filed":"2026-10-17","updated":"2026-10-18","orgs":["DeepSeek"]},{"id":"2026-06-01-minimax-m3","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-06-01-minimax-m3/","date":"2026-06-01","date_precision":"day","short_title":"MiniMax M3: open-weights 428B MoE with 1M context and native multimodality","deck":null,"takeaway":"M3 made 1M context + native multimodality + frontier-ish coding available as open weights at ~1/20th of Western frontier prices.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":4,"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["MiniMax"]}],"people":[],"posts":[{"id":"x-minimax_ai-2112150867868541221","title":"“MiniMax M3.1 Flash: Space Performance + Bunny Speed 🚀🐰 Yes, Space Bunny - which has…”","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-minimax_ai-2112150867868541221/"},{"id":"x-openrouter-2112152045461680591","title":"“Stealth model reveal 🐰 Space Bunny was OpenRouter’s #1 model for 10 straight days…”","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-openrouter-2112152045461680591/"}],"videos":[],"models":[{"id":"minimax-m3-1-flash","name":"MiniMax-M3.1-Flash","url":"https://postcutoff.com/m/minimax-m3-1-flash/"}],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-19","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-10-19","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-19","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-19"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":172,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":111,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":202,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":141,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}