The closest alternative to MiniMax M1 is MiniMax M3 — comparable intelligence (44.4 vs —); for a cheaper option, GPT-5.6 Luna runs $0.500/M vs $0.550/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
MiniMax M3 is the closest alternative to MiniMax M1, with an Intelligence Index of 44.4 (MiniMax M1 scores —) at $0.300 per million input tokens.
Yes — GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.500 per million input tokens versus $0.550 for MiniMax M1, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to MiniMax M1 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.