Sunk Cost sunkcost.ai Data checked 2026-09-03

MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs GLM-5.3-Flash

MiniMax M3.1 Flash scores higher on the intelligence index, 43 against 42. None of the 37 machines here still sold at a published price runs MiniMax M3.1 Flash at 32k of context. GLM-5.3-Flash runs on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB, from $10,799. At 500k tokens a day that machine pays for itself in 965 years running GLM-5.3-Flash.

MiniMax M3.1 FlashGLM-5.3-Flash
Intelligence index4342
ClassSonnet-classSonnet-class
Weights249 GB189 GB
Needs at 32k254 GB190 GB
QuantisationUD-Q4_K_XLUD-Q4_K_M
Parameters428B (23B active)321.3B (18B active)
Max context1M1M
API price per 1M$0.09 in / $0.5 out$0.075 in / $0.25 out
LicenceMiniMax Community LicenseMIT
Machines here that run it0 of 371 of 37
Cheapest machine that runs itnone listedMac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799

Run MiniMax M3.1 Flash in the calculator · or GLM-5.3-Flash on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB

Machines that run one and not the other

GLM-5.3-Flash needs 190 GB of memory at 32k of context and MiniMax M3.1 Flash needs 254 GB. That puts GLM-5.3-Flash on 1 of the 37 machines priced here that MiniMax M3.1 Flash does not, starting at $10,799.

MachinePriceMemorySpeed on GLM-5.3-FlashPay-back
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB$10,799256 GB32 tok/s estimatedPays back in 965 years

GLM-5.3-Flash is also head to head with Qwen3.8 Flash Next below it on the leaderboard. One more model needs much the same memory: Tencent Hy3.

The assumptions behind both columns

Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Where nobody rents an open model by the token, its API prices are the nearest hosted model's, named beside them. Machines are the 37 here with a published price that are still sold. Change any of it in the calculator.

More head to head: what MiniMax M3.1 Flash needs · every machine that runs GLM-5.3-Flash · every other match-up · both against the frontier · the quickest pay-back at each level of use