MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Kimi K3
MiniMax M3.1 Flash took 23 min 37 s and $0.095 at list price, Kimi K3 took 22 min 52 s and $1.92 at list price. Both took about as long, and Kimi K3 cost 20× as much.
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax · $0.60/M out · 550 HN pts
Kimi K3
Moonshot AI · $15.00/M out · 9,870 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.
Patchbay is a small workshop in Rotterdam where old synthesizers come back to life. We are three people — a former recording engineer, a self-taught circuit obsessive, and a classically trained pianist who fell in love with broken machines — and between us we have spent decades coaxing sound out of equipment the rest of the world gave up on.
We started Patchbay because we kept meeting the same problem: beloved instruments sitting silent in attics and studio corners, written off as unfixable. A Juno with a dead voice chip. A Prophet that drifts out of tune. A Moog that hums when it shouldn't. To us, none of these are lost causes. They are instruments with history in them, and they deserve careful hands, original parts where possible, and honest work.
Every synth that leaves our bench is played, tested, and listened to — because that is what it was made for.
Specs and numbers
| MiniMax M3.1 Flash | Kimi K3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Moonshot AI |
| Made in | China | China |
| Released | 19 Oct 2026 | 16 Jul 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.15 | $0.192 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.60 | $15.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 550 | 9,870 |
| Time for the six prompts | 23 min 37 s | 22 min 52 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.095 | $1.92 |
MiniMax M3.1 Flash was cheaper: $1.82 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Both took about as long in total; Kimi K3 was faster on 4 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%, Kimi K3's 68%. Tea Garden experiment: MiniMax M3.1 Flash's game passed 5 of 5 checks, Kimi K3's 5 of 5.