R1 vs Grok 3

Head-to-head on our 12-test suite (scores shown are from our testing unless otherwise noted):

• Wins by Grok 3 (B): structured_output 5 vs R1 4 — Grok 3 is tied for 1st on structured output ("JSON schema compliance") while R1 ranks 26 of 54; classification 4 vs 2 — Grok 3 ties for 1st in classification, R1 ranks 51 of 53; long_context 5 vs 4 — Grok 3 is tied for 1st on long context, R1 ranks 38 of 55; safety_calibration 2 vs 1 — Grok 3 ranks 12 of 55 vs R1's lower safety rank; agentic_planning 5 vs 4 — Grok 3 ties for 1st on agentic planning, R1 is mid‑table. These wins indicate Grok 3 is stronger where strict formats, routing/classification, and very long-context retrieval matter in production.
• Wins by R1 (A): constrained_rewriting 4 vs 3 — R1 is better at tight compression within hard limits (rank 6 of 53 vs Grok 3 rank 31); creative_problem_solving 5 vs 3 — R1 scores top marks for non‑obvious, feasible ideas (tied for 1st). Choose R1 when compact, creative or constrained rewriting is critical.
• Ties: strategic_analysis (5/5), tool_calling (4/4), faithfulness (5/5), persona_consistency (5/5), multilingual (5/5). On these shared strengths both models perform similarly in our tests.
• External math benchmarks: R1 posts 93.1% on MATH Level 5 (Epoch AI) and 53.3% on AIME 2025 (Epoch AI); Grok 3 has no MATH/AIME numbers in the payload. These external scores (Epoch AI) suggest R1 is strong on high-difficulty math tasks in the provided external benchmarks, but math-specific strengths do not change the majority outcome of our 12-test suite. Overall: Grok 3 wins more categories that map to enterprise extraction, structured outputs and long-context workflows; R1 wins niche creativity and constrained-rewrite tasks and is far cheaper.

Raw per‑M-token pricing from the payload: R1 input $0.7 / output $2.5; Grok 3 input $3 / output $15. If you assume 1M input + 1M output tokens per month, R1 costs $3.20/M and Grok 3 costs $18.00/M. At scale: 1M tokens → R1 $3.20 vs Grok 3 $18.00; 10M → R1 $32 vs Grok 3 $180; 100M → R1 $320 vs Grok 3 $1,800. If you bill or operate at tens of millions of tokens/month, the difference becomes budget‑critical: Grok 3 adds roughly $1,480 per 10M tokens compared with R1 (assuming equal input/output). Enterprises that need the specific wins Grok 3 delivers should budget for the higher cost; startups and high-volume applications prioritizing price should prefer R1.

Choose Grok 3 if: you need best-in-class structured output, classification/routing, long-context retrieval or agentic planning in production and can budget $3/$15 per Mtk (input/output). Choose R1 if: you need a dramatically lower-cost model ($0.7/$2.5 per Mtk) that still ties on strategic analysis, faithfulness, persona consistency and multilingual tasks and outperforms on constrained rewriting and creative problem-solving. If cost at 10M–100M tokens/month matters, favor R1; if formatted output correctness or long-context accuracy directly drives revenue, favor Grok 3.