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Grok-3 Mini vs LongCat-2.5

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 30.8. Grok-3 Mini is 1.5x cheaper per token.

xAI · Meituan · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-2.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 30.8, ranking #20 overall.

On price, Grok-3 Mini is roughly 1.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

LongCat-2.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

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

Choose Grok-3 Mini

  • cost matters — it's about 1.5x cheaper per token

Choose LongCat-2.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 50.0 and ranks #20 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok-3 Mini
xAI
LongCat-2.5
Meituan
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
30.8
#144
50.0
#20
Reasoning
30.4
#143
48.3
#21
Coding
18.6
#138
38.6
#27
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$0.50 / M
$1.20 / M
Context window
128,000
1,048,576

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Grok-3 Mini
LongCat-2.5
Math
28.3#103
37.2#37
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for Grok-3 Mini · 23 for LongCat-2.5

No common benchmarks found

Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Grok-3 Mini costs less

For input processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.30/1M tokens) costs the same as LongCat-2.5 ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.50/1M tokens) is 2.4x cheaper than LongCat-2.5 ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, LongCat-2.5 is more expensive than Grok-3 Mini.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Nov 03 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok-3 Mini
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$0.50
Best providerxAI
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

LongCat-2.5 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Grok-3 Mini's 128,000 tokens. LongCat-2.5 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Grok-3 Mini is limited to 8,000 tokens.

xAI
Grok-3 Mini
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Tue Nov 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5 support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Grok-3 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

LongCat-2.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-3 Mini was released on 2025-02-17, while LongCat-2.5 was released on 2026-11-01.

LongCat-2.5 is 21 months newer than Grok-3 Mini.

Grok-3 Mini

Feb 17, 2025

1.7 years ago

LongCat-2.5

Nov 1, 2026

-1 days ago

1.7yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok-3 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-17, while LongCat-2.5's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok-3 Mini's training data extends to 2024-11-17, but cannot make a direct comparison without LongCat-2.5's cutoff date.

Grok-3 Mini

Nov 2024

LongCat-2.5

—

Provider Availability

Grok-3 Mini is available from xAI. LongCat-2.5 is available from Meituan.

Grok-3 Mini

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.50/1M

LongCat-2.5

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-3 Mini
✓ Preferred
LongCat-2.5
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-3 Mini vs LongCat-2.5.

Which is better, Grok-3 Mini or LongCat-2.5?

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 30.8. Grok-3 Mini is made by xAI and LongCat-2.5 is made by Meituan. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Grok-3 Mini compare to LongCat-2.5 in benchmarks?

Grok-3 Mini scores AIME 2024: 95.8%, AIME 2025: 90.8%, GPQA: 84.0%, LiveCodeBench: 80.4%. LongCat-2.5 scores MathVision: 96.5%, BrowseComp: 91.9%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 88.4%, Video-MME: 85.2%.

Is Grok-3 Mini cheaper than LongCat-2.5?

Both models cost $0.30 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5?

Grok-3 Mini supports 128K tokens and LongCat-2.5 supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (30.8 vs 50.0), context window (128K vs 1.0M), licensing (Proprietary vs Unknown). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-3 Mini and LongCat-2.5?

Grok-3 Mini is developed by xAI and LongCat-2.5 is developed by Meituan.

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