MiniMax M3 vs Command A Reasoning
Side-by-side specs, pricing and capabilities. Both models run on Clade under one subscription, so you can switch between them in the same conversation.
MiniMax M3 comes from MiniMax and Command A Reasoning from Cohere. The practical difference for most people is context, price, and which input types each one accepts.
MiniMax M3 holds more in a single conversation — 1M tokens against 256K — which matters for long documents and large codebases.
MiniMax M3 is the cheaper of the two on input tokens at $0.30 / 1M tokens.
| Specification | MiniMax M3 | Command A Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Cohere |
| Model ID | MiniMax-M3 | command-a-reasoning-08-2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 256K |
| Max output | — | 32K |
| Input price | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $5.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $1.20 / 1M tokens | $20.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
| Input types | text, image | text |
| Output types | text | text |
| Plan | All paid plans | All paid plans |
Which should you use?
Pick MiniMax M3 when…
- You need the larger context window — 1M against 256K.
- Cost matters: input runs at $0.30 / 1M tokens versus $5.00 / 1M tokens.
- You need image input, which the other model does not accept.
Pick Command A Reasoning when…
- You want longer single responses — up to 32K output tokens.
Related comparisons
Try both on Clade
You do not have to choose. One Clade subscription gives you MiniMax M3, Command A Reasoning, and every other model on the platform.