Grok-3 Mini vs Mercury 3
Grok-3 Mini and Mercury 3 are closely matched at 30.9 and 36.1 on the LLM Stats Score. Mercury 3 is 2.2x cheaper per token.
xAI · Inception · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok-3 Mini and Mercury 3 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 30.9 and 36.1.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 2.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mercury 3 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 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
- you want predictable pricing at $0.30/M input and $0.50/M output
Choose Mercury 3
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 2.2x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for Grok-3 Mini · 12 for Mercury 3
Grok-3 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mercury 3 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.30/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.50/1M tokens) is 1.4x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok-3 Mini is more expensive than Mercury 3.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Grok-3 Mini's 128,000 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Grok-3 Mini is limited to 8,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Grok-3 Mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.
Grok-3 Mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok-3 Mini
Mercury 3
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok-3 Mini was released on 2025-02-17, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.
Mercury 3 is 20 months newer than Grok-3 Mini.
Feb 17, 2025
1.7 years ago
Oct 19, 2026
0 days ago
1.7yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok-3 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-17, while Mercury 3'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 Mercury 3's cutoff date.
Nov 2024
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Provider Availability
Grok-3 Mini is available from xAI. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.
Grok-3 Mini
Mercury 3
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok-3 Mini and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok-3 Mini vs Mercury 3.