# Grok 4.3 vs Mistral Small 3

> Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-4-3-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.3 scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Grok 4.3 leads 46.0 to 16.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 93.3% for Grok 4.3 and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $2.50 for Grok 4.3.
- Grok 4.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 43.8 | 31.2 |
| Rank | 86 | 278 |
| Context | 1M | 33K |
| Input $/M | $1.25 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Grok 4.3: 41.6 (#121)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1415 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1357 | — |
| SciCode | 47.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 49.9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 944.17 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok 4.3: 27.7 (#99)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GDP.pdf | 8% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1165 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 35.26 | — |

## Reasoning

- Grok 4.3: 35.9 (#68)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1396 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 149.16 | 127.07 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 55.2% | — |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| DTBench | 90.7% | — |
| LMCA | 38.3% | — |
| ForecastBench | 60.3 | — |

## Math

- Grok 4.3: 46.0 (#74)
- Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 93.3% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1388 | 1240 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 42.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 14.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 11% | — |

## Knowledge

- Grok 4.3: 52.5 (#62)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.8% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1385 | 1202 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 33.2% | — |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |

## Multimodal

- Grok 4.3: 31.6 (#104)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1229 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 0% | — |

## Multilingual

- Grok 4.3: 50.5 (#120)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1385 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1422 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1412 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1395 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1379 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1356 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1399 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1398 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Grok 4.3: 72.1 (#140)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1366 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- Grok 4.3: 42.5 (#123)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1393 | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok 4.3: 58.5 (#118)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1380 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1406 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1075 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Grok 4.3 better than Mistral Small 3?

Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 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 4.3 lists at $1.25 and $2.50.

### Is Grok 4.3 or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.6 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 does, with 1M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Grok 4.3 and Mistral Small 3 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.3 has 40 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.