Grok-3 Mini vs Grok 4.6: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Grok-3 Mini and Grok 4.6 both come from xAI, Grok-3 Mini was released in February 2025, and Grok 4.6 followed 18 months later in August 2026.
We have 4 benchmark results for Grok-3 Mini and 11 benchmark results for Grok 4.6, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.
Grok-3 Mini is the cheaper API at $0.30 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens, roughly 7 times cheaper than Grok 4.6 at $2 and $6. Grok 4.6 takes the larger context window at 500K tokens, compared with 128K for Grok-3 Mini. Both accept text and images as input.
| Characteristic | Grok-3 Mini | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | xAI | xAI |
| Release Date | February 16, 2025 | August 12, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 128K | 500K |
| Context (output) | 8K | — |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.30 | $2.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | $0.50 | $6.00 |
| Average Score | 87.8% | 49.6% |
Verdict
Grok 4.6 leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Grok-3 Mini — 0.9, Grok 4.6 — 0.5.
Grok-3 Mini is 10.0x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
Grok 4.6 supports a larger context: 500K vs 128K tokens.
Grok 4.6 is newer: released 8/12/2026 vs 2/16/2025.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Grok-3 Mini or Grok 4.6?
Which model is cheaper — Grok-3 Mini or Grok 4.6?
Which has a larger context window — Grok-3 Mini or Grok 4.6?
The Grok-3 Mini and Grok 4.6 comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Grok-3 Mini or Grok 4.6 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.