MiniMax M3
MiniMax
MiniMax M3 handles long context and multimodal input at low cost. It totals 428 billion parameters, of which 23 billion are active, with a one-million-token context window and sparse attention. It suits large documents and image content.
Key points: Multimodal · 428B mixture-of-experts · 1M context · Sparse attention · Cost-efficient.
Architecture
MiniMax M3 totals 428 billion parameters, of which 23 billion are active (128 experts, 4 active per token), 60 layers, a 1,048,576-token context and 854 GB of weights published in BF16; natively multimodal (text, image, video), it relies on MiniMax Sparse Attention, which lowers the cost of long sequences. MiniMax Community licence: commercial use requires the “Built with MiniMax M3” notice and written authorisation above 20 million dollars of yearly revenue (Hugging Face card and config.json re-read on 2 September 2026).
Strengths
It handles long context and multimodal input at low cost, covering both text and images.
Use cases
MiniMax M3 suits large documents, image analysis, and workflows where cost per token is the priority.
A public deployment: mmr.qdna.fr alternates MiniMax M3 with GLM 5.3 to arbitrate its 572 analyses, and publishes the majority vote of the three draws.
Deployment
Served by vLLM on a GPU server, or consumed via API. It integrates with the platform through LiteLLM.
Every model on the platform is interchangeable through a single gateway: switching models is a matter of changing one configuration line, with no code to rewrite. Local execution remains the priority.
Official sources
- MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3, official model card on Hugging Face: licence, parameters, context window and weight format
- Artificial Analysis, model comparison index
Which machine can run MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 totals 428 billion parameters, about 246 GB in NVFP4. 7 platforms in the catalogue have enough memory. Active parameters govern speed, not footprint: every expert stays resident.
| Platform | Memory | Most precise format that fits | Sizing page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Studio Ultra | 512 GB | FP8 | MiniMax M3 on Mac Studio Ultra |
| DGX Station | 748 GB | FP8 | MiniMax M3 on DGX Station |
| RTX PRO 6000 server | 768 GB | FP8 | MiniMax M3 on RTX PRO 6000 server |
| H200 SXM server | 1,128 GB | FP16 | MiniMax M3 on H200 SXM server |
| B200 SXM | 1,440 GB | FP16 | MiniMax M3 on B200 SXM |
| B300 SXM | 2,304 GB | FP16 | MiniMax M3 on B300 SXM |
| GB300 NVL72 | 20,700 GB | FP16 | MiniMax M3 on GB300 NVL72 |
See also MiniMax M3 in NVFP4 and the full sizing matrix.