Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Small
Comparing Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Mistral Small is roughly 10.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok 4.6
- you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Mistral Small
- cost matters — it's about 10.0x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok 4.6 and Mistral Smalldon'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
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Mistral Small ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Mistral Small ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than Mistral Small.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small's 32,768 tokens. Only Mistral Small specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 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
Mistral Small
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small uses Mistral Research License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Mistral Research License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17.
Grok 4.6 is 23 months newer than Mistral Small.
Aug 12, 2026
1 weeks ago
1.9yr newerSep 17, 2024
1.9 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Mistral Small'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 Mistral Small's cutoff date.
Feb 2026
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Provider Availability
Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Mistral Small is available from Mistral AI.
Grok 4.6
Mistral Small
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Small.