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Grok 4.6 vs Magistral Small 2506

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

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

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Magistral Small 2506

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

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Magistral Small 2506
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
— / M
Context window
500,000
—
Released
Aug 2026
Jun 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506don'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

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.6 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Magistral Small 2506 does not.

Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Magistral Small 2506

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Magistral Small 2506 uses Apache 2.0.

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

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Magistral Small 2506

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10.

Grok 4.6 is 14 months newer than Magistral Small 2506.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.2yr newer
Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.2 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Magistral Small 2506 has a cutoff of 2025-06-01.

Grok 4.6 has more recent training data (up to 2026-02-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Magistral Small 2506 (2025-06-01).

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

8 mo newer
Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Magistral Small 2506
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Magistral Small 2506.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Magistral Small 2506?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Magistral Small 2506 (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 4.6 compare to Magistral Small 2506 in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. Magistral Small 2506 scores AIME 2024: 70.7%, GPQA: 68.2%, AIME 2025: 62.8%, LiveCodeBench: 51.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and Magistral Small 2506 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 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.6 and Magistral Small 2506?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI.

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