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Grok 3 vs Mistral Medium

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

Updated

Grok 3 specs · Mistral Medium specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceMistral Medium

    Mistral Medium is roughly 7.5× cheaper on output tokens ($2.00 vs $15.00 per 1M).

  • 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 3

    Grok 3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Mistral Medium.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Grok 3 and Mistral Medium: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Mistral Medium is roughly 7.5× cheaper on output tokens ($2.00 vs $15.00 per 1M). 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 3 handles text, vision while Mistral Medium handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

Grok 3 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Mistral Medium, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 3 is usually picked for chatbots and research agent workloads, while Mistral Medium sees more deployments in customer support and chatbots. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGrok 3Mistral Medium
ProviderxAIMistral
ReleasedFeb 2025Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$3.00 / 1M tokens$0.40 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$15.00 / 1M tokens$2.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-08,
Open weightsNoNo
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$31.50 vs $4.20
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $42.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $72.00

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $31.50 vs $4.20 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $315 vs $42.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $540 vs $72.00 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

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

  • Grok 3$1.05
  • Mistral Medium$0.140

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 3 if

Grok 3 fits when…

  • Real-time X access
  • Reasoning modes
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Mistral Medium if

Mistral Medium fits when…

  • Mid-tier balance
  • EU-friendly
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 7.5× cheaper than Grok 3 on output tokens.
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 3 vs Grok 4Mistral Medium vs Grok 4

Frequently asked

  • Is Grok 3 or Mistral Medium cheaper?
    Mistral Medium is cheaper at $2.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Grok 3.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Grok 3 and Mistral Medium ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Grok 3 or Mistral Medium better for coding?
    Both Grok 3 and Mistral Medium 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?
    Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.
  • When were Grok 3 and Mistral Medium released?
    Grok 3 was released by xAI on 2025-02-17. Mistral Medium was released by Mistral on 2024-12-18.
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