Model Comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Grok 4.5 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct — which is better?

Grok 4.5 (by xAI) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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.

Grok 4.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Grok 4.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Grok 4.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.5 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.5
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

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

Grok 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Grok 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.5 was released on 2026-07-16, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17.

Grok 4.5 is 16 months newer than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

Grok 4.5

Jul 16, 2026

2 days ago

1.3yr newer
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Mar 17, 2025

1.3 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct's cutoff date.

Grok 4.5

Feb 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (500,000 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (93.0% vs 46.0%)
Mistral AI
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.5
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok 4.5
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.5 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Grok 4.5 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4.5 is made by xAI and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Grok 4.5 compare to Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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%. Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct scores HumanEval: 88.4%, MMLU: 80.6%, TriviaQA: 80.5%, MBPP: 74.7%, MATH: 69.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 supports 500K tokens and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 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 4.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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