MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Pareto 26.9
MiniMax M3.1 Flash took 23 min 37 s and $0.095 at list price, Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price. MiniMax M3.1 Flash took 2.2× as long, and Pareto 26.9 cost 3.6× as much.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax · $0.60/M out · 550 HN pts
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam dedicated to bringing vintage synthesizers back to life. We repair analog and digital instruments that shaped the sound of music, from classic drum machines and polyphonic synths to quirky, characterful machines that rarely leave a musician’s side. Our work combines technical knowledge with respect for each instrument’s history, because a synth is more than a circuit board: it carries the decisions, compromises, and personality of its original design.
We diagnose faults, restore unreliable voices, and carefully service aging components without erasing the character that made an instrument worth keeping. Whether a machine has been silent for years or simply needs a thoughtful tune-up, we treat every repair as a careful act of restoration.
Based in Rotterdam, Patchbay works with musicians, studios, collectors, and anyone who believes electronic instruments deserve another chapter. We restore them to sound as they should, preserving the details that make each one unique.
Patchbay is a small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
Specs and numbers
| MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Pareto 26.9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Unbiased |
| Made in | China | — |
| Released | 19 Oct 2026 | 13 Oct 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.15 | $2.50 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.60 | $7.50 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Weights | open | closed |
| Hacker News points | 550 | — |
| Time for the six prompts | 23 min 37 s | 10 min 32 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.095 | $0.34 |
MiniMax M3.1 Flash was cheaper: $0.24 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Pareto 26.9 was faster: 13 min 5 s less in total, and faster on each of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).
Rebuild this screen experiment: MiniMax M3.1 Flash's rebuild matched the screenshot at 78%; Pareto 26.9 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: MiniMax M3.1 Flash's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Pareto 26.9 was not in it.