Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Grok 3 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini benchmark

Name: Grok 3 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Grok 3 (xAI) and OpenAI: o3 Mini (OpenAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, OpenAI: o3 Mini is ahead by 155 points (1,560 vs 1,405; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini resolves 78.5% versus 51.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). OpenAI: o3 Mini streams faster (92 tok/s) while OpenAI: o3 Mini is the cheaper output token ($4.4/1M). OpenAI: o3 Mini has the larger context window (200k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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xAI

Grok 3

Previous xAI generation before Grok 4. Kept for grok 3 vs grok 4.

Elo 1,405$15/1M out

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (openai/o3-mini). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,560$4.4/1M out

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 3 (1)vsOpenAI: o3 Mini (9)

Grok 3: 1W (10%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniOpenAI: o3 Mini: 9W (90%)

← Grok 3OpenAI: o3 Mini →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,405vs1,560

Coding Elo

—vs1,585

SWE-bench

51.4%vs78.5%

LiveBench

60.2%vs72.4%

GPQA Diamond

74.2%vs87.2%

Grok 3: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W

Tied (1/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

250 msvs290 ms

Grok 3: 1WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 1W

OpenAI: o3 Mini (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$4.4/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1.1/1M

Context window

131kvs200k

Grok 3: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageOpenAI: o3 Mini 5/6

Preference Elo

OpenAI: o3 Mini

155 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

OpenAI: o3 Mini

4 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

OpenAI: o3 Mini

$10.60/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,405

EloHigh is better

1,560+11%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,585

LiveBench

High is better

60.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

72.4%+20%

SWE-bench

High is better

51.4%

SWE-benchHigh is better

78.5%+53%

GPQA

High is better

74.2%

GPQAHigh is better

87.2%+18%

TTFT

Low is better

+16%250 ms

TTFTLow is better

290 ms

Speed

High is better

88 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

92 tok/s+5%

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$1.1/1M+173%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$4.4/1M+241%

Context

High is better

131k

ContextHigh is better

200k+53%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 68% with OpenAI: o3 Mini

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Grok 3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

OpenAI: o3 Mini$104.50 / mo

In: $38.50Out: $66.00

Estimated Cost Delta

OpenAI: o3 Mini is estimated to save $225.50/month ($2,706/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
OpenAI: o3 Mini:Pick OpenAI: o3 Mini when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Grok 3:Pick Grok 3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
OpenAI: o3 Mini:Pick OpenAI: o3 Mini as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 Mini

Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).

High-volume chatOpenAI: o3 Mini

Lower output list price ($4.4/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 3

Lower TTFT (250 ms).

Long-document RAGOpenAI: o3 Mini

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 3

Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).
High-volume chat	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Lower output list price ($4.4/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 3	Lower TTFT (250 ms).
Long-document RAG	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 3	Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

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LIVE

xAI

Grok 3

Elo 1,405

LiveBench60.2%

SWE-bench51.4%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Elo 1,560

LiveBench72.4%

SWE-bench78.5%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$4.4/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: OpenAI: o3 Mini has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,560). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench at 78.5% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: OpenAI: o3 Mini output tokens are $4.4/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: Grok 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (250 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: OpenAI: o3 Mini accepts 200k tokens versus 131k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Grok 3 matchups →|All OpenAI: o3 Mini matchups →

Grok 3 vs Grok 4 (next grok)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (previous gpt-mini)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs GPT-5 mini (next gpt-mini)GPT-4.5 Orion vs OpenAI: o3 Mini GPT-5.6 Terra vs OpenAI: o3 Mini GPT-5 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini

Grok 3 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 3 (1)vsOpenAI: o3 Mini (9)

Grok 3: 1W (10%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniOpenAI: o3 Mini: 9W (90%)

← Grok 3OpenAI: o3 Mini →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,405vs1,560

Coding Elo

—vs1,585

SWE-bench

51.4%vs78.5%

LiveBench

60.2%vs72.4%

GPQA Diamond

74.2%vs87.2%

Grok 3: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W

Tied (1/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

250 msvs290 ms

Grok 3: 1WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 1W

OpenAI: o3 Mini (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$4.4/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1.1/1M

Context window

131kvs200k

Grok 3: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 Mini

Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).

High-volume chatOpenAI: o3 Mini

Lower output list price ($4.4/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 3

Lower TTFT (250 ms).

Long-document RAGOpenAI: o3 Mini

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 3

Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).
High-volume chat	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Lower output list price ($4.4/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 3	Lower TTFT (250 ms).
Long-document RAG	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 3	Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

OpenAI: o3 Mini has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,560). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench at 78.5% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

OpenAI: o3 Mini output tokens are $4.4/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Grok 3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

Grok 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (250 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

OpenAI: o3 Mini accepts 200k tokens versus 131k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.