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Grok 4.6 vs Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) 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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

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

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
— / M
Context window
500,000
—
Released
Aug 2026
Dec 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)don'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
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) support multimodal inputs.

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

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) 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

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) was released on 2025-12-04.

Grok 4.6 is 8 months newer than Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512).

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

8mo newer
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

8 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)'s cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)'s cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512).

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) (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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) 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%. Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) scores MMLU-Redux: 79.3%, MMLU: 76.1%, Multilingual MMLU: 70.6%, TriviaQA: 68.1%, MATH (CoT): 62.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) 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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)?

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

Who makes Grok 4.6 and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is developed by Mistral AI.

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