Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Large 3

Head-to-head technical comparison of intelligence, capabilities, and API pricing.

Grok 4.6
xAI
AI Mastery Index93.8
LMSYS Arena1470
Technical (MMLU-Pro)93.1%
Cost per 1M Tokens$2
Mistral Large 3
Mistral
AI Mastery Index89.2
LMSYS Arena1430
Technical (MMLU-Pro)89.2%
Cost per 1M Tokens$0.5

Which should you use?

Grok 4.6 leads on the composite index by 4.6 points (93.8 vs 89.2).

Cost is the sharper difference: Grok 4.6 is 4x the input price of Mistral Large 3 ($2 against $0.5 per 1M), so at volume the choice is usually decided by budget rather than benchmarks.

Pick Grok 4.6 when

  • Higher composite index — 93.8 against 89.2, a gap of 4.6 points.
  • Ahead on Arena Elo by 40 points (1470 vs 1430), which is outside the board's published confidence intervals.
  • Stronger on MMLU-Pro: 93.1% against 89.2%.

Pick Mistral Large 3 when

  • Cheaper input tokens — $0.5 against $2 per 1M, so Grok 4.6 costs 4x as much to feed.
  • Better value per point of measured capability: $0.006 per index point against $0.021.

Value per point of measured capability, at list input pricing: Mistral Large 3 $0.006 · Grok 4.6 $0.021 per index point. Run your own token mix through the token cost calculator — a comparison at list price ignores caching and batch discounts, which move real bills more than this gap does.

Our reporting on xAI and Mistral