Model Comparison

Grok-4.1 Thinking vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1Which is better in 2026?

Comparing Grok-4.1 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Grok-4.1 Thinking vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 — which is better?

Grok-4.1 Thinking (by xAI) and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (by NVIDIA) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Choose Grok-4.1 Thinking if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2025

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok-4.1 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies output context (8,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok-4.1 Thinking
Input256,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Wed Jul 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok-4.1 Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 does not.

Grok-4.1 Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-4.1 Thinking is licensed under a proprietary license, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 uses Llama 3.1 Community License.

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

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Proprietary

Closed source

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-4.1 Thinking was released on 2025-11-17, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07.

Grok-4.1 Thinking is 7 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Nov 17, 2025

7 months ago

7mo newer
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Apr 7, 2025

1.3 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-01, while Grok-4.1 Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1's training data extends to 2023-12-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Grok-4.1 Thinking's cutoff date.

Grok-4.1 Thinking

—

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
NVIDIA
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-4.1 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-4.1 Thinking
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok-4.1 Thinking
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-4.1 Thinking vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Which is better, Grok-4.1 Thinking or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Grok-4.1 Thinking (xAI) and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (NVIDIA) 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 Thinking compare to Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 in benchmarks?

Grok-4.1 Thinking scores Creative Writing v3: 86.1%, WMDP: 84.0%, EQ-Bench: 79.3%, ProtocolQA: 79.0%, LMArena Text Leaderboard: 74.2%. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 scores MATH-500: 97.0%, IFEval: 89.5%, GPQA: 76.0%, BFCL v2: 74.1%, AIME 2025: 72.5%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-4.1 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Grok-4.1 Thinking supports 256K tokens and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 supports an unknown number of 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 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Key differences include 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-4.1 Thinking and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Grok-4.1 Thinking is developed by xAI and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA.

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