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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  2. Comparisons
  3. Grok 4.6 vs Mistral: Mistral Small 3

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Grok 4.6 vs Mistral: Mistral Small 3 benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Mistral: Mistral Small 3 is more budget-friendly at $0.08/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Grok 4.6 if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Mistral: Mistral Small 3 if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
Share Analysis:
WhatsAppTelegramXLinkedInReddit
xAI
Grok 4.6

xAI Aug 12 2026 post-training refresh of Grok 4.5. Same $2/$6 API price, 500k context, stronger agentic traces.

Elo 1,592$6/1M out
Mistral
Mistral: Mistral Small 3

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (mistralai/mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501). Preview until a second source matches.

$0.08/1M out
Top Rival Showdowns for Grok 4.6
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar Leader

Mistral: Mistral Small 3

$0.08 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

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 AdvantageGrok 4.6 5/6
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Grok 4.6 (8)vsMistral: Mistral Small 3 (2)
Grok 4.6: 8W (80%)Overall: Grok 4.6Mistral: Mistral Small 3: 2W (20%)
← Grok 4.6Mistral: Mistral Small 3 →
Grok 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo
1,592vs—
Coding Elo
1,568vs—
SWE-bench
69.1%vs—
LiveBench
71.4%vs—
GPQA Diamond
84.6%vs—
Grok 4.6: 5WMistral: Mistral Small 3: 0W
Grok 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed
118 tok/svs—
Time to first token
195 msvs—
Grok 4.6: 2WMistral: Mistral Small 3: 0W
Mistral: Mistral Small 3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price
$6/1Mvs$0.08/1M
Input price
$2/1Mvs$0.05/1M
Context window
500kvs33k
Grok 4.6: 1WMistral: Mistral Small 3: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo
Grok 4.61,592
lmarena · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
Coding Elo
Grok 4.61,568
lmarena · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
LiveBench
Grok 4.671.4%
livebench · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
SWE-bench
Grok 4.669.1%
swebench · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
GPQA Diamond
Grok 4.684.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
Time to first token
Grok 4.6195 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
Output speed
Grok 4.6118 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3—
Input priceMistral: Mistral Small 3 (+$1.95/1M)
Grok 4.6$2/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3$0.05/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Output priceMistral: Mistral Small 3 (+$5.92/1M)
Grok 4.6$6/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3$0.08/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Context windowGrok 4.6 (+467k)
Grok 4.6500k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 333k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral: Mistral Small 3Advantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,592
lmarena · Aug 16, 2026
——
Coding Elo
1,568
lmarena · Aug 16, 2026
——
LiveBench
71.4%
livebench · Aug 16, 2026
——
SWE-bench
69.1%
swebench · Aug 16, 2026
——
GPQA Diamond
84.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
——
Time to first token
195 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
——
Output speed
118 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
——
Input price
$2/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0.05/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3 (+$1.95/1M)
Output price
$6/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0.08/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Mistral: Mistral Small 3 (+$5.92/1M)
Context window
500k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
33k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Grok 4.6 (+467k)
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 98% with Mistral: Mistral Small 3
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Grok 4.6$160.00 / mo
In: $70Out: $90
Mistral: Mistral Small 3$2.95 / mo
In: $1.75Out: $1.2
Estimated Cost Delta

Mistral: Mistral Small 3 is estimated to save $157.05/month ($1,885/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Mistral: Mistral Small 3:Pick Mistral: Mistral Small 3 when you are optimizing output cost.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatMistral: Mistral Small 3

Lower output list price ($0.08/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGGrok 4.6

Larger window (500k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatMistral: Mistral Small 3Lower output list price ($0.08/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGGrok 4.6Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
compareAug 12, 2026

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Brand hub remaps to top xAI vs top OpenAI. After Aug 12 that is Grok 4.6 vs Sol.

launchAug 12, 2026

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

xAI’s Aug 12 2026 refresh of Grok 4.5. 500k context. The Grok vs ChatGPT hub remaps here.

launchJul 10, 2025

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

2025-07 row. 4.6 is the buy. We keep 4 so upgrade pairs and old inbound links resolve.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE
VS
xAI

Grok 4.6

Elo 1,592
LiveBench71.4%
SWE-bench69.1%
Speed118 tok/s
Output cost$6/1M
Mistral

Mistral: Mistral Small 3

Elo n/a
LiveBench—
SWE-bench—
Speed—
Output cost$0.08/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4.6 or Mistral: Mistral Small 3?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Grok 4.6 or Mistral: Mistral Small 3?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Mistral: Mistral Small 3 output tokens are $0.08/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Grok 4.6 or Mistral: Mistral Small 3?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 4.6 accepts 500k tokens versus 33k.
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 4.6 and Mistral: Mistral Small 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • compare · Aug 12, 2026

    Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

  • launch · Aug 12, 2026

    Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

  • launch · Jul 10, 2025

    Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Grok 4.6 matchups →|All Mistral: Mistral Small 3 matchups →
Grok 4.6 vs Grok 4 (previous grok)Mistral Large 3 vs Grok 4.6Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.6GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.6Claude Opus 4.6 vs Grok 4.6Gemini 3.6 Pro vs Grok 4.6