Muse Spark Open vs MiniMax M3
Muse Spark Open took 9 min 38 s and $0.29 at list price, MiniMax M3 took 33 min 3 s and $0.21 at list price. MiniMax M3 took 3.4× as long, and Muse Spark Open cost 1.4× as much.
Muse Spark Open
Meta · $4.25/M out · 1,383 HN pts
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · $1.20/M out · 144 HN pts
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 small studio in Rotterdam where vintage synthesizers come back to life. We are three technicians, musicians and longtime collectors who have spent the last decade trading schematics, hunting spare parts, and learning the quirks of every oscillator and filter that has passed through our hands.
What started as helping friends keep their Junos and ARPs in tune has grown into a dedicated workshop in the north of the city. We repair, restore and service instruments from the sixties to the early nineties, from well-known classics to rare prototypes that barely left the factory.
We believe these machines are more than equipment. They carry histories, imperfections and sounds that cannot be replaced. Our job is to respect that character while making sure each instrument is reliable, playable, and ready for another lifetime of music.
Patchbay began in a cluttered apartment in Rotterdam, where three friends spent weekends coaxing old synthesizers back to life. What started as a shared obsession quickly outgrew the living room. In 2016, we opened our first proper workshop in a converted warehouse on the south side of the city, and we have been soldering, calibrating, and listening closely ever since.
We are a small team of three. Niels handles the analog work, coaxing warm tones from aging oscillators and reluctant filters. Marijn focuses on digital systems and the occasional stubborn MIDI quirk. Sanna manages restorations, sourcing rare components and keeping long projects on track. Between us, we have decades of experience with the machines that shaped electronic music.
Every synth that passes through our doors carries decades of sound inside it. Our job is to make sure that story continues.
Specs and numbers
| Muse Spark Open | MiniMax M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | MiniMax |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 15 Oct 2026 | 31 May 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $1.25 | $0.30 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $4.25 | $1.20 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 1,383 | 144 |
| Time for the six prompts | 9 min 38 s | 33 min 3 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.29 | $0.21 |
MiniMax M3 was cheaper: $0.077 less at list price, and less on 5 of the 6 prompts. Muse Spark Open was faster: 23 min 25 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Muse Spark Open's rebuild matched the screenshot at 53%; MiniMax M3 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Muse Spark Open's game passed 5 of 5 checks; MiniMax M3 was not in it.