Model comparison
Grok 4.1 Fast vs Mistral Small 3
Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 4.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.1 Fast's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.1 Fast scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Grok 4.1 Fast leads 57.2 to 32.2.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.20 / $0.50 for Grok 4.1 Fast.
- Grok 4.1 Fast accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 41.4 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2025-06-27 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 33K |
| Max output | 30K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.20 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Small 3 leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 34.1 (#245), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1411 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1242 | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 394.93 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.3 (#39), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 69.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 13.1% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1171 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 1,107 | — |
Reasoning Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 43.4 (#49), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1233 |
| SimpleBench | 56% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| DTBench | 87.7% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.07 |
| ForecastBench | 61 | — |
Math Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 31.9 (#221), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1408 | 1240 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 60.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
| ProofBench | 4% | — |
Knowledge Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 33.1 (#207), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1399 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Grok 4.1 Fast: 37.0 (#76), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1201 | — |
Multilingual Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 51.0 (#114), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1391 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1441 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1415 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1404 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1349 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1361 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1413 | — |
Instruction Following Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 72.7 (#133), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1214 |
Long Context Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 42.4 (#126), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1390 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 57.2 (#131), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1408 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1394 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1327 | 707 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1389 | 1217 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4.1 Fast better than Mistral Small 3?
Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 4.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.1 Fast's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.1 Fast or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Grok 4.1 Fast lists at $0.20 and $0.50.
Is Grok 4.1 Fast or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.5 versus 34.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Grok 4.1 Fast does, with 128K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Grok 4.1 Fast and Mistral Small 3 share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.1 Fast has 32 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.