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Grok-2 mini vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 14.7 to 8.6.

xAI · Meta · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 14.7 to 8.6, ranking #233 overall.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok-2 mini

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2024

Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

  • overall performance matters — it scores 14.7 and ranks #233 on LLM Stats
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 5 exact shared results
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok-2 mini
xAI
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Meta
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
8.6
#277
14.7
#233
Reasoning
8.2
#274
13.8
#233
Coding
5.9
#194
11.5
#154
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 5
4 of 5
Input price
— / M
$0.89 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.89 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Grok-2 mini
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Math
15.8#212
19.3#168
Finance
15.7#119
17.7#105
Legal
15.7#101
17.7#89
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

8 reported for Grok-2 mini · 18 for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

5 shared

Grok-2 mini outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (HumanEval, MATH, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok-2 mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Meta
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Grok-2 mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 405B Instruct does not.

Grok-2 mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok-2 mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-2 mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok-2 mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-2 mini was released on 2024-08-13, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

Grok-2 mini is 1 month newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.

Grok-2 mini

Aug 13, 2024

2.1 years ago

3w newer
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.2 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-2 mini and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-2 mini
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-2 mini vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.

Which is better, Grok-2 mini or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 14.7 to 8.6. Grok-2 mini is made by xAI and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is made by Meta. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Grok-2 mini compare to Llama 3.1 405B Instruct in benchmarks?

Grok-2 mini scores DocVQA: 93.2%, MMLU: 86.2%, HumanEval: 85.7%, MATH: 73.0%, MMLU-Pro: 72.0%. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct scores ARC-C: 96.9%, GSM8k: 96.8%, API-Bank: 92.0%, Multilingual MGSM (CoT): 91.6%, HumanEval: 89.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-2 mini and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?

Grok-2 mini supports an unknown number of tokens and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok-2 mini and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (8.6 vs 14.7), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-2 mini and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?

Grok-2 mini is developed by xAI and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is developed by Meta.

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