GPT-5 mini (High) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or Grok 4.6 (Medium) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Medium) scores 26.0 points higher (42.8 vs 16.8) but costs 8.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 42.8 | +154.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 2.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $1,557.04 | +725.3% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 8.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 58.72s | 31.37s | −46.6% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 46.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 154.8% more intelligence, 725.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Grok 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5 mini (High)Grok 4.6 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill