# Grok 4.1 Fast vs Mistral Small 3

> Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.9 to 30.9 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-4-1-fast-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- 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 57.4 to 32.4.
- 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.

## Snapshot

| | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 40.9 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 131 | 268 |
| Context | 128K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.20 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $0.50 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 33.8 (#236)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1411 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1241 | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 394.93 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.1 (#35)
- 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: 42.3 (#45)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

| 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 | — | 127.06 |
| ForecastBench | 61 | — |

## Math

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 30.9 (#201)
- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

| 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: 32.6 (#203)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.8% | — |

## Multimodal

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.3 (#71)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1201 | — |

## Multilingual

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 51.1 (#110)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1391 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1441 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1416 | 1202 |
| LMArena German | 1404 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1347 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1361 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1411 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 72.8 (#127)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 42.4 (#121)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1390 | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 57.4 (#126)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

| 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 |

## FAQ

### Is Grok 4.1 Fast better than Mistral Small 3?

Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.9 to 30.9 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: 36.0 versus 33.8 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.