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Grok 2 vs Ministral 8B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Grok 2 specs · Ministral 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGrok 2

    Grok 2 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.

  • OpennessMinistral 8B

    Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Grok 2 is API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Grok 2 and Ministral 8B: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Grok 2 handles text, vision while Ministral 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Grok 2 is API-only.

Ministral 8B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Grok 2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 2 is usually picked for chatbots workloads, while Ministral 8B sees more deployments in edge deployment and on device. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGrok 2Ministral 8B
ProviderxAIMistral
ReleasedAug 2024Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Mistral Research License)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Grok 2Pricing unavailable
  • Ministral 8BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Grok 2 if

Grok 2 fits when…

  • Free on X Premium
  • Real-time data
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Ministral 8B if

Ministral 8B fits when…

  • Edge-optimized
  • Strong 8B-class quality
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Don't want either?

Consider Grok 4

xAI's mid-2025 flagship, top scores on Humanity's Last Exam at launch, with native real-time X integration.

See Grok 4 specsGrok 2 vs Grok 4Ministral 8B vs Grok 4

Frequently asked

  • Is Grok 2 or Ministral 8B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Grok 2 and Ministral 8B ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Grok 2 or Ministral 8B better for coding?
    Both Grok 2 and Ministral 8B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License). Grok 2 is API-only.
  • When were Grok 2 and Ministral 8B released?
    Grok 2 was released by xAI on 2024-08-13. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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