Model comparison

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) vs Magistral Small

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.5 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)'s lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 8 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) xAI

48.5

Rank #48 Confirmed

Magistral Small Mistral AI

29.9

Rank #289 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) scores higher in 4 categories and Magistral Small in 0 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads 52.2 to 6.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 89.5% for Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and 5% for Magistral Small.
  • Magistral Small is cheaper at $0.50 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $2.50 for Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning).
  • Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
  • Magistral Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and Magistral Small specifications
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
ProviderxAIMistral AI
Noometry Index48.529.9
Released2026-02-172025-06-10
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M128K
Max output30K40K
Input $ / M tokens$1.25$0.50
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$1.50
Results tracked4610

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 41.8 (#104), Magistral Small: 37.8 (#172)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
LMArena WebDev1374—
SciCode—35.2%
WeirdML52.3%—
LMArena Coding1458—
ALE-Bench1,150—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 34.3 (#43), Magistral Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
Terminal-Bench57.3%—
τ²-bench Banking18%—
LMArena Search1189—
Vending-Bench 24,663—

Reasoning Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 52.2 (#30), Magistral Small: 6.9 (#345)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
ARC-AGI-265.1%0%
Kagi LLM Benchmark75%6.3%
ARC-AGI-189.5%5%
Chess Puzzles24%3%
DTBench90.1%61.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index152.01133.19
NYT Connections (extended)85.4%—
CritPt—0.3%
Thematic Generalization63.8%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1451—
LMCA38.7%—
ForecastBench61.4—

Math Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 48.0 (#54), Magistral Small: 24.9 (#253)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202592.2%30%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)44.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%—
ProofBench14%—
LMArena Math1455—

Knowledge Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 52.8 (#54), Magistral Small: 30.9 (#215)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
GPQA Diamond89.3%56.1%
SimpleQA Verified30.2%—
LMArena Expert1440—

Multimodal Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 33.2 (#88), Magistral Small: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
LMArena Vision1263—
Blueprint-Bench 20%—
LMArena Document1416—

Multilingual Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 54.7 (#38), Magistral Small: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
LMArena Non-English1440—
LMArena Chinese1481—
LMArena French1477—
LMArena German1463—
LMArena Japanese1450—
LMArena Korean1417—
LMArena Russian1457—
LMArena Spanish1442—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 75.0 (#79), Magistral Small: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
LMArena Instruction Following1420—

Long Context Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 45.4 (#33), Magistral Small: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
CL-bench22.2%—
CL-bench Life11.9%—
LMArena Longer Query1436—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning): 65.9 (#42), Magistral Small: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)Magistral Small
LMArena Text1451—
LMArena Creative Writing1439—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1574—
LMArena Multi-Turn1456—

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) better than Magistral Small?

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.5 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)'s lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) or Magistral Small?

Magistral Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) lists at $1.25 and $2.50.

Is Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) or Magistral Small better for coding?

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and Magistral Small share?

8 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) has 46 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.

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