Grok 4.6 (High) vs Ministral 3 8B
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (High) by SpaceXAI or Ministral 3 8B by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (High) scores 38.8 points higher (44.3 vs 5.5) but costs 71× as much to run the benchmark ($1963 vs $27.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (High) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (High) | Ministral 3 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.3 | 5.5 | −87.6% Ministral 3 8B is 87.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,962.90 | $27.47 | −98.6% Ministral 3 8B is 98.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.57s | 4.90s | −86.2% Ministral 3 8B is 86.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.15 / $0.15 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 8B vs Grok 4.6 (High): 87.6% less intelligence, 98.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Ministral 3 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Grok 4.6 (High)Ministral 3 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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