Mistral Small 3 vs Grok Code
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Mistral Small 3
MistralMistral's cost-effective model. Very affordable for general-purpose tasks.
| Input | $0.100/M |
| Output | $0.300/M |
| Context | 32K tokens |
| Best For | High-volume tasks, cost optimization |
| Benchmark | 42/100 |
Grok Code
xAIxAI's coding-specialized model. Optimized for code generation, debugging, and software engineering tasks.
| Input | $1.50/M |
| Output | $7.50/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Code generation, debugging, software development workflows |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Mistral Small 3 | Grok Code | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.01 | $0.28 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.26 (95%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.10 | $2.02 | Mistral Small 3 saves $1.93 (95%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $0.47 | $10.13 | Mistral Small 3 saves $9.65 (95%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.02 | $0.45 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.42 (94%) |
Verdict
Mistral Small 3 wins on both price and performance — $0.100/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
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