MiniMax Cuts M3 Model Prices by 50% Permanently on June 15, Two Weeks After Launch Following Developer Backlash

According to Beating, MiniMax introduced a permanent 50% price discount for its flagship M3 model on June 15, dropping standard input pricing from $0.60 to $0.30 per million tokens and output pricing from $2.40 to $1.20. The move came just two weeks after the company sparked a major trust crisis on June 1 by abruptly switching from per-request to per-token billing and reducing existing subscriber benefits, causing developer costs to surge more than 250%. Despite an apology and compensation offer on June 2, the price cuts were necessary to stem developer defection amid intense competition from competitors like DeepSeek.

The aggressive pricing retreat triggered analyst downgrades. Goldman Sachs lowered its price target by 14%, citing profit margin compression, while JPMorgan downgraded the stock, noting that rapid price cuts after a new model launch typically signal weaker-than-expected model performance.