Model Comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Ministral 8B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Grok 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Grok 4.5 vs Ministral 8B Instruct — which is better?

Grok 4.5 (by xAI) and Ministral 8B Instruct (by Mistral AI) 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.

On price, Ministral 8B Instruct is roughly 30.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Grok 4.5 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Grok 4.5 if…

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Ministral 8B Instruct if…

  • cost matters — it's about 30.0x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Ministral 8B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Grok 4.5 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok 4.5 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 60.0x more expensive than Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Grok 4.5 is more expensive than Ministral 8B Instruct.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok 4.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$6.00
Best providerxAI
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.10
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok 4.5 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Ministral 8B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Only Ministral 8B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.5
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Ministral 8B Instruct does not.

Grok 4.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Ministral 8B Instruct uses Mistral Research License.

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

Grok 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Ministral 8B Instruct

Mistral Research License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.5 was released on 2026-07-16, while Ministral 8B Instruct was released on 2024-10-16.

Grok 4.5 is 21 months newer than Ministral 8B Instruct.

Grok 4.5

Jul 16, 2026

2 days ago

1.7yr newer
Ministral 8B Instruct

Oct 16, 2024

1.8 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Ministral 8B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.5's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Ministral 8B Instruct's cutoff date.

Grok 4.5

Feb 2026

Ministral 8B Instruct

—

Provider Availability

Grok 4.5 is available from xAI. Ministral 8B Instruct is available from Mistral AI.

Grok 4.5

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M

Ministral 8B Instruct

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (500,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AI
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.5
✓ Preferred
Ministral 8B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok 4.5
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.5 vs Ministral 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Grok 4.5 or Ministral 8B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 (xAI) and Ministral 8B Instruct (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 4.5 compare to Ministral 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Grok 4.5 scores GPQA: 93.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 83.3%, Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v1.1: 76.0%, SWE-Bench Pro: 64.7%, AA-Omniscience Index: 63.0%. Ministral 8B Instruct scores MT-Bench: 83.0%, Winogrande: 75.3%, ARC-C: 71.9%, Arena Hard: 70.9%, MBPP pass@1: 70.0%.

Is Grok 4.5 cheaper than Ministral 8B Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is 20.0x cheaper for input tokens. Grok 4.5 costs $2.00/M input and $6.00/M output via xai. Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 supports 500K tokens and Ministral 8B 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 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instruct?

Key differences include context window (500K vs 128K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Mistral Research License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.5 and Ministral 8B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI and Ministral 8B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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