MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
MiniMax M3.1 Flash took 23 min 37 s and $0.095 at list price, Gemini 4 Argon took 13 min 43 s and $0.68 at list price. MiniMax M3.1 Flash took 1.7× as long, and Gemini 4 Argon cost 7.2× as much.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax · $0.60/M out · 550 HN pts
Gemini 4 Argon
Google · $10.00/M out · 2,036 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 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.
In a quiet industrial building overlooking the Maas, the air smells of warm dust, solder flux, and ozone. This is Patchbay, a three-person workshop in Rotterdam dedicated to keeping the golden age of electronic music alive. We don’t view vintage synthesizers as museum pieces to be locked behind glass. To us, a Roland Jupiter-8 or an ARP Odyssey is a living, breathing instrument meant to be played, gigged, and pushed to its sonic limits.
Between the three of us, we have spent decades deciphering faded schematics, hunting down obsolete transistors, and cleaning decades of club grime from beneath weighted keys. Rotterdam is a city built on raw electronics and relentless rhythms, and we take pride in keeping its hardware running. Whether you bring us a touring workhorse with a dead voice chip or a garage-find modular rig that hasn’t powered on since 1984, we are here to make it sing again.
Specs and numbers
| MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Gemini 4 Argon | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | |
| Made in | China | US |
| Released | 19 Oct 2026 | 13 Oct 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.15 | $2.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.60 | $10.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | closed |
| Hacker News points | 550 | 2,036 |
| Time for the six prompts | 23 min 37 s | 13 min 43 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.095 | $0.68 |
MiniMax M3.1 Flash was cheaper: $0.58 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Gemini 4 Argon was faster: 9 min 55 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: MiniMax M3.1 Flash's rebuild matched the screenshot at 78%, Gemini 4 Argon's 69%. Tea Garden experiment: MiniMax M3.1 Flash's game passed 5 of 5 checks, Gemini 4 Argon's 5 of 5.