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Grok-4.1 vs Pixtral-12B

Comparing Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

On price, Pixtral-12B is roughly 40.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Grok-4.1 also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok-4.1

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2025

Choose Pixtral-12B

  • cost matters — it's about 40.0x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok-4.1
xAI
Pixtral-12B
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Context window
256,000
128,000
Released
Nov 2025
Sep 2024
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12Bdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Pixtral-12B costs less

For input processing, Grok-4.1 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok-4.1 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Grok-4.1 is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok-4.1
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerxAI
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok-4.1 accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Pixtral-12B's 128,000 tokens. Pixtral-12B can generate longer responses up to 8,192 tokens, while Grok-4.1 is limited to 8,000 tokens.

xAI
Grok-4.1
Input256,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B support multimodal inputs.

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

Grok-4.1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Pixtral-12B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-4.1 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Pixtral-12B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Grok-4.1

Proprietary

Closed source

Pixtral-12B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-4.1 was released on 2025-11-17, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.

Grok-4.1 is 14 months newer than Pixtral-12B.

Grok-4.1

Nov 17, 2025

9 months ago

1.2yr newer
Pixtral-12B

Sep 17, 2024

1.9 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

Provider Availability

Grok-4.1 is available from xAI. Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI.

Grok-4.1

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Pixtral-12B

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-4.1
✓ Preferred
Pixtral-12B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-4.1 vs Pixtral-12B.

Which is better, Grok-4.1 or Pixtral-12B?

Grok-4.1 (xAI) and Pixtral-12B (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok-4.1 compare to Pixtral-12B in benchmarks?

Grok-4.1 scores FActScore: 97.0%, Creative Writing v3: 85.4%, EQ-Bench: 79.3%, LMArena Text Leaderboard: 73.3%. Pixtral-12B scores DocVQA: 90.7%, ChartQA: 81.8%, VQAv2: 78.6%, MT-Bench: 76.8%, HumanEval: 72.0%.

Is Grok-4.1 cheaper than Pixtral-12B?

Pixtral-12B is 20.0x cheaper for input tokens. Grok-4.1 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via xai. Pixtral-12B costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B?

Grok-4.1 supports 256K tokens and Pixtral-12B 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-4.1 and Pixtral-12B?

Key differences include context window (256K vs 128K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.15/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-4.1 and Pixtral-12B?

Grok-4.1 is developed by xAI and Pixtral-12B is developed by Mistral AI.

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