# MiniMax API vs SambaCloud (slim)

> SambaCloud scores 66.4 (B) to MiniMax's 55.2 (C) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-sambanova.md (~3,350 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-sambanova.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-sambanova
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-19
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

SambaCloud scores 66.4 (B) on agent readiness against MiniMax API's 55.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

- MiniMax API: C 55.2, rank #751 of 1175 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-api.min.md
- SambaCloud: B 66.4, rank #326 of 1175 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.min.md
- MiniMax API, good for Cheap long-context agent and coding calls through an Anthropic-compatible client, on data you can share with the vendor.
- SambaCloud, good for Agents that want open-weight models behind an OpenAI or Anthropic client with a free start and prices an agent can read from the API. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 75; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 59; Security & auth, 58 against 30; Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 77 against 45. Also Free to start without a card; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5.

| Category | MiniMax API | SambaCloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 75 | 85 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 59 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 30 | 58 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 77 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 63 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MiniMax API | SambaCloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | MiniMax | SambaNova Systems, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.minimax.io` | `https://api.sambanova.ai/v1` |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | Proprietary API under MiniMax's platform terms. MiniMax-M3 weights are on Hugging Face under the MiniMax community licence | Proprietary service under the SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-19 | 2026-09-17 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2023-05-27 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 493 stars | 2 stars, 76 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (4) |