MiniMax M3.1 Flash: turn a visual brief into a usable prompt

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is a multimodal language model: it can work with text and visual inputs and respond in text. In Yix Chat, you can select it to discuss an image, clarify a creative brief or prepare a prompt for a separate image or video model. Changing the chat model does not change the model that renders your final picture or clip.

MiniMax announced M3.1 Flash on October 19, 2026. Its official model card lists text, image and video inputs and a context window of up to one million tokens. Yix Chat currently accepts text and images. Its own conversation and upload limits still apply; selecting the model does not enable video uploads or a million-token document workspace.

Where it fits in a creative workflow

A reference photo often contains more information than a short prompt can express. You might want to preserve a bottle's proportions but change its background, keep the lighting but replace the setting, or describe a camera move before generating a video. The useful first step is to separate the details that must stay from the details you want to change.

M3.1 Flash can help organize that discussion. Ask for a description of visible elements, then check it yourself. Fine lettering, reflections and partly hidden objects are easy places for a visual model to make mistakes. If a product label matters, type the exact wording instead of trusting a guess from a small photo.

MiniMax's release announcement focuses on coding, agentic tasks and computer use. Those capabilities depend on the surrounding application. Selecting this model in Yix does not give it access to your desktop, files or external accounts. The creative assistant prepares text and generation drafts within Yix's existing workflow.

Select the model without changing your defaults

1. Open Yix Chat with M3.1 Flash selected and sign in.
2. Check the Assistant model menu. Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash if you entered through the ordinary chat page.
3. Write the task or attach your reference images. State which details to preserve and what the final output should be used for.
4. Review the assistant's reply. Correct mistaken details before asking for a generation draft.
5. If you request an image or video, review the separate generation model, settings and credit quote on the confirmation card before starting it.

Gemini 2.5 Flash remains the default for an ordinary new chat. An existing conversation remembers its selected assistant model. You can switch models from the menu, but wait for a pending reply to finish before changing it.

A reference-image brief you can adapt

The following is an original example input, not a published model result or a quality benchmark. Attach a product photo that you own, then use the brief as a starting point:

Describe the visible shape, finish and label placement of this bottle. Separate what you can see from anything uncertain. Then write a square product-photo prompt that keeps the bottle unchanged, places it on a pale stone surface and uses soft light from the left. Leave space above it for a headline, but do not generate text. Ask me about any detail you cannot read.

Check whether the reply preserves the cap, bottle silhouette, color and label position. If it invents a material or claims to read illegible text, correct that detail explicitly. A useful follow-up would be: “The bottle is frosted glass, not metal. Keep the cap black and preserve the narrow neck. Update the complete prompt.”

Once the brief is correct, ask for an image draft using a model that supports your reference. The assistant's model and the image model have separate jobs. The assistant can explain the change; the image model determines how it is rendered. For a more structured product-photo brief, see our product photography prompts.

Upload limits and useful preparation

Yix Chat accepts up to four image attachments, with a maximum of 7 MB per image. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and GIF. Use a clear still image when checking an object's details; a file extension alone does not guarantee that every frame or detail will be understood.

Crop away irrelevant background when it obscures the object, while keeping enough context to explain scale and lighting. Number references in your message if they have different roles: “Image 1 is the product; image 2 shows the lighting direction.” Do not combine several conflicting requirements and hope the assistant will choose the right one.

For video planning, you can ask for a shot description or a prompt using a starting image. Yix Chat does not currently accept a video file for this model. If you already have a complete video prompt, the video generator provides a direct route to rendering it.

Reading the model's specifications

The official card describes roughly 428 billion total parameters, with about 23 billion activated per token. These figures describe the model architecture. They do not tell you whether a particular prompt will preserve a logo or produce a useful answer.

The model also supports adjustable reasoning effort in its documented interface. A larger reasoning budget can change latency and token use; it is not a guarantee of a correct answer. Yix keeps this setting managed for the chat workflow rather than exposing the provider's full parameter list.

The official MiniMax documentation is the right reference for developers who need the full input and reasoning controls. For creative work in Yix, the practical checks are simpler: did the assistant understand the reference, preserve your constraints and produce a draft you can inspect before generating?

Costs and result checks

Conversation allowance and generation credits are separate in Yix. Sending a chat message does not itself purchase an image or video. A generation draft becomes a paid generation only when you confirm the displayed task and credit amount. The current pricing page explains the available credit options.

The model's published benchmarks come from specific evaluation setups. This guide does not present a Yix speed comparison or a scored quality test. Use a small, repeatable task to judge whether the assistant is helpful for your work: keep the reference and brief fixed, inspect the same required details, and note what needed correction. A polished explanation is useful only if the final brief still matches your intent.