Grok 4 vs Mistral Small 3
Real-time-aware, unfiltered, strong reasoner. Meanwhile, mistral small 3: small, open-weights, surprisingly sharp.
Side-by-side
Specs
| Dimension | Grok 4 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Mistral |
| Released | 2025-11 | 2025-09 |
| Context window | ✓256K | 128K |
| Output max | ✓64K | 8K |
| Input /M | $5.00 | ✓$0.20 |
| Output /M | $15.00 | ✓$0.60 |
| Modalities | ✓text, image | text |
| Open weights | no | ✓yes |
Scorecard
Dimension-by-dimension
Grok 4
Mistral Small 3
reasoning
9.0
6.0
coding
8.0
7.0
writing
8.0
7.0
speed
7.0
9.0
value
7.0
10.0
Verdict
Which wins, by use case
| Use case | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| coding | Grok 4 | a clear edge on our weighted coding score |
| writing | Grok 4 | a coin flip on our weighted writing score |
| chat | Mistral Small 3 | a decisive lead on our weighted chat score |
| agents | Grok 4 | a clear edge on our weighted agents score |
| summarization | Mistral Small 3 | a decisive lead on our weighted summarization score |
| translation | Mistral Small 3 | a clear edge on our weighted translation score |
| reasoning | Grok 4 | a decisive lead on our weighted reasoning score |
| research | Grok 4 | a coin flip on our weighted research score |
| vision and multimodal | Grok 4 | a coin flip on our weighted vision score |
| Cheapest AI models for bulk workloads | Mistral Small 3 | a decisive lead on our weighted cheap-bulk score |
Bottom line
Our take
Pick Grok 4 if you need: real-time data integration, competitive on stem.
Pick Mistral Small 3 if you need: tiny cost, open weights.
At a 500M-input / 150M-output monthly volume, Grok 4 costs roughly $4750 vs Mistral Small 3 at $190. Use our calculator to plug in your own numbers.
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