MiniMax API vs SambaCloud

MiniMax API

M3.1 Flash costs $0.15 in and $0.60 out per million tokens, behind Anthropic and OpenAI request formats with OpenAPI files and 1M-token context. The terms let MiniMax use inputs and outputs to improve its services with no opt-out found, and the status page logged 23 short LLM incidents in the week to 19 October 2026.

SambaCloud

Per-token prices and the model list are readable without a key at /v1/models, and a free tier needs no card. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the docs disagree with the live catalogue on MiniMax-M2.7.

MiniMax API

1. Use the Anthropic-format base URL https://api.minimax.io/anthropic for tool calls. The OpenAI-format schema has no tool_choice or response_format
2. Set output_config.effort (or reasoning_effort) below max for routine calls. M3.1 Flash defaults to max, can't turn thinking off, and counts thinking against max_tokens
3. Don't rely on stop_sequences or top_k. The Anthropic-format endpoint ignores them
4. Back off on 429 and 529 yourself. No Retry-After header is documented
5. Use a pay-as-you-go key for production. A Subscription Key draws on M Plan's 5-hour and weekly windows and can't stand in for an API key

SambaCloud

1. Call GET https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models at start-up and use only ids it returns. The docs name models the endpoint no longer lists
2. Read x-ratelimit-remaining-requests and x-ratelimit-remaining-requests-day on every response. The free tier allows 20 requests a day per model
3. Treat 429 queue_full and 503 maintenance as retryable after a delay, and 410 model_deprecated as a signal to change model
4. Validate JSON output yourself. Schema enforcement is best effort and strict: true changes nothing
5. Check max_completion_tokens per model. DeepSeek-V3.1 caps output at 7,168 tokens and Llama 3.3 70B at 3,072