Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) by SpaceXAI or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? 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 4.3 (Non-reasoning) scores 2.7 points higher (14.0 vs 11.3) but costs 5.9× as much to run the benchmark ($250 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 14.0 | 11.3 | −19.3% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 19.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $250.37 | $42.50 | −83.0% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 83.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.93s | 14.77s | +149.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 149.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $2.50 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning): 19.3% less intelligence, 83.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 149.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning)Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-3-non-reasoning/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-3-non-reasoning/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill