GPT-4o-mini vs Grok 3

Summary of head-to-head scores from our 12-test suite (our testing):

• Grok 3 wins (8 tests): structured output 5 vs GPT-4o-mini 4 (Grok 3 tied for 1st in our ranking for structured output); strategic analysis 5 vs 2 (Grok 3 tied for 1st on strategic analysis); faithfulness 5 vs 3 (Grok 3 tied for 1st on faithfulness); long context 5 vs 4 (Grok 3 tied for 1st on long context); persona consistency 5 vs 4 (Grok 3 tied for 1st); agentic planning 5 vs 3 (Grok 3 tied for 1st); multilingual 5 vs 4 (Grok 3 tied for 1st); creative problem solving 3 vs 2 (Grok 3 ranks higher). These wins indicate Grok 3 is stronger for precise schema compliance, retrieval and operations across 30K+ token contexts, consistent character/persona, nuanced tradeoff reasoning, and faithful adherence to sources — all important for data extraction, enterprise summarization, and multi-step planning.
• GPT-4o-mini wins safety calibration 4 vs 2 (GPT-4o-mini ranks 6th of 55 on safety calibration in our rankings vs Grok 3's rank 12 of 55), meaning GPT-4o-mini refused harmful requests more reliably in our tests while allowing legitimate ones.
• Ties: constrained rewriting 3/3 (both equal), tool calling 4/4 (both perform similarly on function selection and argument accuracy), classification 4/4 (both tied for 1st among many models). For tool-calling and classification tasks you can expect comparable results from either model.
• Math/olympiad context (GPT-4o-mini only in payload): GPT-4o-mini scored 52.6 on Math Level 5 and 6.9 on AIME 2025 in our tests, ranking 13/14 and 21/23 respectively — these results signal weakness on advanced competition math in our evaluation. (No external benchmark overrides included for these models in the payload.)

Pricing per 1,000 tokens (mTok) from the payload: GPT-4o-mini input $0.15, output $0.60; Grok 3 input $3, output $15. At 1M tokens (1,000 mTok): GPT-4o-mini costs $150 (all-input), $600 (all-output), $375 (50/50 split); Grok 3 costs $3,000 (all-input), $15,000 (all-output), $9,000 (50/50). At 10M tokens multiply those by 10 (GPT-4o-mini $1,500/$6,000/$3,750; Grok 3 $30,000/$150,000/$90,000). At 100M tokens multiply by 100 (GPT-4o-mini $15,000/$60,000/$37,500; Grok 3 $300,000/$1,500,000/$900,000). Who should care: startups, high-volume SaaS, and consumer apps will see multi‑ten‑to‑hundreds of thousands USD difference at scale and should prefer GPT-4o-mini for cost-efficiency. Enterprises prioritizing the quality dimensions Grok 3 wins (structured outputs, long context, faithfulness, agentic planning) may justify Grok 3's price for smaller or mission-critical workloads.

Choose GPT-4o-mini if: you need a cost-efficient model for high-volume chat, apps where safety calibration matters, or mixed text+image inputs (GPT-4o-mini costs $0.15/mTok input and $0.60/mTok output). Choose Grok 3 if: you prioritize structured JSON/schema compliance, long-context retrieval, faithfulness, agentic planning, or multilingual/persona consistency — Grok 3 won 8 of 12 benchmarks in our tests but costs $3/mTok input and $15/mTok output, so reserve it for lower-volume or mission-critical workloads.