Model comparison

Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Small 3.1

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 31.7 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.1 costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.9

Rank #21 Confirmed

Mistral Small 3.1 Mistral AI

31.7

Rank #269 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.6 scores higher in 9 categories and Mistral Small 3.1 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Grok 4.6 leads 67.0 to 14.7.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 99.2% for Grok 4.6 and 3.9% for Mistral Small 3.1.
  • Mistral Small 3.1 is cheaper at $0.35 / $0.56 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.6.
  • Grok 4.6 accepts more context: 500K tokens versus 128K.
  • Mistral Small 3.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 specifications
Grok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
ProviderxAIMistral AI
Noometry Index56.931.7
Released2026-08-122025-03-17
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window500K128K
Max output500K102K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.35
Output $ / M tokens$6$0.56
Results tracked4928

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 58.5 (#16), Mistral Small 3.1: 38.3 (#179)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Coding14651309
DeepSWE67.5%—
FrontierCode48%—
CursorBench41.4%—
LMArena WebDev1617—
FrontierSWE25.3%—
SciCode56.5%—
WeirdML67.3%—
ALE-Bench1,508—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#27), Mistral Small 3.1: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
APEX-Agents65.3%—
GDP.pdf17.2%—
Vending-Bench 29,047—

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 61.4 (#20), Mistral Small 3.1: 19.7 (#254)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
Chess Puzzles40%1%
LMArena Hard Prompts14471278
Epoch Capabilities Index156.44127.48
ARC-AGI-267.1%—
SimpleBench75.9%—
NYT Connections (extended)80%—
ARC-AGI-187.5%—
CritPt19.7%—
EBR-Bench30.5%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.3%—
LMCA48.5%—

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 67.0 (#24), Mistral Small 3.1: 14.7 (#301)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.2%3.9%
LMArena Math14231262
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)66%—
FrontierMath Tier 431.7%—
ProofBench51%—
Omni-MATH—24.8%

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#20), Mistral Small 3.1: 22.6 (#271)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
GPQA Diamond94%41.9%
LMArena Expert14671257
SimpleQA Verified49.3%—
MMLU-Pro—61%
GPQA (HELM)—39.2%

Multimodal Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 43.6 (#23), Mistral Small 3.1: 33.2 (#99)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Vision12631136
Blueprint-Bench 233.2%—
Furniture Assembly40%—
LMArena Document1452—

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 53.0 (#74), Mistral Small 3.1: 41.2 (#209)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Non-English14201255
LMArena Chinese14801253
LMArena French14611273
LMArena German14311266
LMArena Japanese13761208
LMArena Korean13971206
LMArena Russian14221263
LMArena Spanish14041283

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 75.4 (#63), Mistral Small 3.1: 63.6 (#230)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Instruction Following14311264
IFEval—75%

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 44.5 (#66), Mistral Small 3.1: 39.5 (#178)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Longer Query14541299

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 62.3 (#80), Mistral Small 3.1: 37.0 (#259)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Mistral Small 3.1
LMArena Text14281277
LMArena Creative Writing14281253
LMArena Multi-Turn14251270
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—761
WildBench—78.8%

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.6 better than Mistral Small 3.1?

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 31.7 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.1 costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Mistral Small 3.1?

Mistral Small 3.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.35 per million input tokens and $0.56 per million output tokens; Grok 4.6 lists at $2 and $6.

Is Grok 4.6 or Mistral Small 3.1 better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.5 versus 38.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.6 does, with 500K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 share?

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.6 has 49 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.1 has 28.

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