MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B

A side-by-side comparison of MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash ($0.52 / 1M tokens) and Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B ($0.88 / 1M tokens) using current USD prices and capabilities from the api14 catalog. Both run through the same OpenAI-compatible API.

Specifications

	MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash	Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B
Provider	MiniMax	Reflection
Input	$0.52 / 1M tokens	$0.88 / 1M tokens
Output	$2.10 / 1M tokens	$3.50 / 1M tokens
Cache read	$0.05 / 1M tokens	$0.18 / 1M tokens
Context window	1,000,000	1,048,576
Max output	524,288	131,072
Input	text, image, video	text
Output	text	text
Tool calling
Structured output
Reasoning control
Added	Oct 19, 2026	Oct 16, 2026

Key differences

MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash is 40% cheaper on input tokens.
MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash is 40% cheaper on output tokens.
Only Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B supports structured JSON output.
A request with 1,000 input and 500 output tokens costs $0.00158 with MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash and $0.00263 with Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B.

Switch with one string

Both models use the same endpoint and request shape. Change the model value from "minimax/minimax-m3.1-flash" to "reflection/beam-1.0-501b-a23b" and prompts, streaming and tools keep working.

MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash details & playground →Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B details & playground →

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api14.com/api/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.API14_API_KEY,
});

const result = await client.chat.completions.create({
  "model": "reflection/beam-1.0-501b-a23b",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Explain vector databases in two sentences."
    }
  ]
});
console.log(result.choices[0].message.content);

MiniMax: MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Reflection: Beam 1.0 501B A23B

Specifications

Key differences

Switch with one string

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