LongCat-2.0 vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Meituan · China | MiniMax · China · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick LongCat-2.0 for near-frontier agentic coding — topped openrouter anonymously as 'owl alpha' for two months or massive native 1m context at near-linear cost via sparse attention. Pick MiniMax M3.1 Flash for $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length or 428b-parameter moe (about 23b active) with weights on hugging face from october 23, 2026. On a tight budget at scale, LongCat-2.0 is the value pick.
LongCat-2.0 (Meituan) and MiniMax M3.1 Flash (MiniMax) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. LongCat-2.0 is a trillion-parameter, MIT-licensed open MoE delivering near-frontier agentic coding at 1M context — trained entirely on Chinese chips. MiniMax M3.1 Flash is miniMax's October 19, 2026 always-thinking agentic Flash model - 1M context, text/image/video input, $0.15/$0.60 and open weights under a community license. Their biggest split is price, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences at a glance
- ▸Context window: both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Tie on paper — test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
- ▸Recency: MiniMax M3.1 Flash is the newer model by about 4 months (released October 19, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | LongCat-2.0 | MiniMax M3.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meituan (China) | MiniMax (China) |
| Released | July 5, 2026 | October 19, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M (~1,500 pages) | 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) |
| Price (in/out) | Open weight (self-host / free) | $0.15/$0.6 per 1M tokens |
| Open weight? | Yes — self-hostable | Yes — self-hostable |
| Modalities | text, code | text, image, video, code |
| SWE-Bench Verified | Not published | Not published |
| MRCR v2 @ 1M | Not published | Not published |
Who wins what
Near-frontier agentic coding — topped OpenRouter anonymously as 'Owl Alpha' for two months
LongCat-2.0
LongCat-2.0 lists near-frontier agentic coding — topped OpenRouter anonymously as 'Owl Alpha' for two months among its strengths; MiniMax M3.1 Flash does not.
Massive native 1M context at near-linear cost via sparse attention
LongCat-2.0
LongCat-2.0 lists massive native 1M context at near-linear cost via sparse attention among its strengths; MiniMax M3.1 Flash does not.
Fully MIT-licensed 1.6T-parameter mixture-of-experts (about 48B active)
LongCat-2.0
LongCat-2.0 lists fully MIT-licensed 1.6T-parameter mixture-of-experts (about 48B active) among its strengths; MiniMax M3.1 Flash does not.
$0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax's October 19, 2026 always-thinking agentic Flash model - 1M context, text/image/video input, $0.15/$0.60 and open weights under a community license — and it is the newer of the two.
428B-parameter MoE (about 23B active) with weights on Hugging Face from October 23, 2026
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax M3.1 Flash lists 428B-parameter MoE (about 23B active) with weights on Hugging Face from October 23, 2026 among its strengths; LongCat-2.0 does not.
DeepSWE v1.1 of 73.7% and OSWorld V2 of 61.7 (MiniMax-reported)
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
LongCat-2.0 is comparatively weak here — headline scores are vendor-reported on SWE-Bench Pro, not the Verified set
Lowest cost at scale
LongCat-2.0
Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of MiniMax M3.1 Flash's $0.15/$0.6 per 1M tokens.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ LongCat-2.0
At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts MiniMax M3.1 Flash, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Anyone whose priority is near-frontier agentic coding — topped openrouter anonymously as 'owl alpha' for two months
→ LongCat-2.0
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length
→ MiniMax M3.1 Flash
That is its strongest area.
LongCat-2.0: where it fits
A trillion-parameter, MIT-licensed open MoE delivering near-frontier agentic coding at 1M context — trained entirely on Chinese chips. Released July 5, 2026 by Meituan, it is built for near-frontier agentic coding — topped OpenRouter anonymously as 'Owl Alpha' for two months, massive native 1M context at near-linear cost via sparse attention, fully MIT-licensed 1.6T-parameter mixture-of-experts (about 48B active), and trained end to end on domestic Chinese chips, independent of Nvidia hardware.
Its trade-offs are real: a 1.6T model is extremely expensive to self-host, so most use leans on the China-hosted API, and headline scores are vendor-reported on SWE-Bench Pro, not the Verified set. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash: where it fits
MiniMax's October 19, 2026 always-thinking agentic Flash model - 1M context, text/image/video input, $0.15/$0.60 and open weights under a community license. Released October 19, 2026 by MiniMax, it is built for $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length, 428B-parameter MoE (about 23B active) with weights on Hugging Face from October 23, 2026, deepSWE v1.1 of 73.7% and OSWorld V2 of 61.7 (MiniMax-reported), and artificial Analysis Intelligence Index of 42, 13 points above MiniMax M3.
Its trade-offs: thinking is always on and default effort is max, which inflates output-token cost, behind DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 on Artificial Analysis's independent index, custom MiniMax Community license: attribution required, and products above $20M annual revenue need written authorization, and benchmarks are mostly self-reported; no SWE-bench Verified figure published. At $0.15 in / $0.6 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
LongCat-2.0 and MiniMax M3.1 Flash overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. LongCat-2.0 costs less per token; and each leads in its own area — LongCat-2.0 for near-frontier agentic coding — topped openrouter anonymously as 'owl alpha' for two months, MiniMax M3.1 Flash for $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both LongCat-2.0 and MiniMax M3.1 Flash without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
See pricingFrequently asked questions
Is LongCat-2.0 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, LongCat-2.0 leans toward near-frontier agentic coding — topped openrouter anonymously as 'owl alpha' for two months while MiniMax M3.1 Flash leans toward $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens (cached $0.015) with flat pricing regardless of prompt length, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, LongCat-2.0 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
LongCat-2.0 is cheaper — Open weight (self-host / free) vs $0.15/$0.6 per 1M tokens.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both LongCat-2.0 and MiniMax M3.1 Flash together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you LongCat-2.0, MiniMax M3.1 Flash and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, LongCat-2.0 or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?
MiniMax M3.1 Flash — released October 19, 2026, about 4 months after LongCat-2.0.
Related comparisons
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.