We are not publishing a free-tier verdict for either MiniMax or Portkey. Tier "Pay-as-you-go" is usage-billed from the first request. When we last read the page we cite for Portkey, on 2026-10-24, we found a change we could not reconcile with the terms we publish for it. We are not publishing a stability rating for MiniMax. We are not comparing the two pricing histories.
A verdict here is not a fixed property of the vendor. A one-off pricing event demotes a vendor while its recorded date falls in the last 180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn and not restored, a product retired — does not lapse with time. A badge carrying a date states the record it rests on; a badge with no date rests on no record in force.
MiniMax sells API access pay-as-you-go on platform.minimax.io. Its pricing pages list no free API allowance; one docs page mentions a free quota for new pay-as-you-go users but gives no amount. Text: MiniMax-M3 $0.30/$1.20 (per 1M tokens, inputs up to 512k, after a permanent 50% discount); MiniMax-M2.7 $0.30/$1.20 (per 1M tokens); MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed $0.60/$2.40 (per 1M tokens). MiniMax M2.5 and M2.7 models are unavailable to new users from 2026-10-19. They are retired on 2026-11-18, after which API requests will not work. For M Plan and Token Plan users, requests to these models are routed to MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview from 2026-10-19. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview is not available to pay-as-you-go users; MiniMax-M3 is the pay-as-you-go option. Speech: speech-2.8-turbo $60 and speech-2.8-hd $100 per 1M characters. Video: MiniMax-H3 $0.08 per second at 768P. Image: image-01 $0.0035 per image. Music and lyrics APIs closed to new users on 2026-08-20. Subscriptions: M Plan Go $22, Explore $55 and Build $132 a month, with the first month half price on monthly billing during the M Plan launch; annual billing charges 10 months for 12. The Token Plan no longer takes new purchases.
Control panel for Gen AI apps featuring an observability suite & an AI gateway. Send & log up to 10,000 requests for free every month.When we last read the page we cite for this offer, on 2026-10-24, we found a change we could not reconcile with the terms we publish, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Pricing Change History
MiniMax
deprecatedeffective 2026-11-18low impact
MiniMax's API keeps running. MiniMax is retiring the M2.5 and M2.7 model families. These models are no longer available to new users from 2026-10-19 and are retired on 2026-11-18. Source ↗
deprecatedeffective 2026-08-20high impact
MiniMax closed its paid Music Generation and Lyrics Generation APIs to new users on 2026-08-20, and says its free music models (Music-3.0-free, Music-2.6-free, music-cover-free) will be discontinued, with no date given. M2.7 and Hailuo prices are unchanged. Source ↗
Portkey
No recorded pricing changes for Portkey.
Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes
We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.