GPT-5.1 vs Grok 3 Mini
For most common high-quality reasoning, multilingual, and long-context needs choose GPT-5.1 — it wins more decisive benchmarks and scores higher on strategic analysis. Grok 3 Mini is the better value for tool-heavy, high-volume deployments because it wins tool calling and costs ~20x less per token.
openai
GPT-5.1
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$1.25/MTok
Output
$10.00/MTok
modelpicker.net
xai
Grok 3 Mini
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$0.300/MTok
Output
$0.500/MTok
modelpicker.net
Benchmark Analysis
In our 12-test suite GPT-5.1 wins four tasks, Grok 3 Mini wins one, and seven are ties (payload winLossTie). Detailed walk-through: - Strategic analysis: GPT-5.1 = 5 vs Grok 3 Mini = 3. GPT-5.1 is tied for 1st (rank: tied for 1st with 25 others out of 54), while Grok 3 Mini ranks 36th; this matters for nuanced tradeoff reasoning (pricing, resource allocation). - Creative problem solving: GPT-5.1 = 4 vs Grok 3 Mini = 3. GPT-5.1 ranks 9th of 54, so it generates more non-obvious feasible ideas in our tests. - Agentic planning: GPT-5.1 = 4 (rank 16 of 54) vs Grok 3 Mini = 3 (rank 42 of 54); GPT-5.1 better decomposes goals and recovery paths. - Multilingual: GPT-5.1 = 5 (tied for 1st) vs Grok 3 Mini = 4 (rank 36 of 55); GPT-5.1 produces higher-quality non-English outputs in our testing. - Tool calling: GPT-5.1 = 4 (rank 18 of 54) vs Grok 3 Mini = 5 (tied for 1st); Grok 3 Mini is best at function selection, argument accuracy and sequencing in our tests. - Ties (identical scores in our tests): structured output 4/4 (both rank 26), constrained rewriting 4/4 (both rank 6), faithfulness 5/5 (both tied for 1st), classification 4/4 (both tied for 1st), long context 5/5 (both tied for 1st), safety calibration 2/2 (both rank 12), persona consistency 5/5 (both tied for 1st). External benchmarks: GPT-5.1 scores 68% on SWE-bench Verified (Epoch AI) and 88.6 on AIME 2025 (Epoch AI) — in our reporting these external results support GPT-5.1’s stronger coding/math performance; Grok 3 Mini has no external SWE-bench/AIME scores in the payload. Practical meaning: GPT-5.1 is the stronger choice for tasks requiring high-level reasoning, multilingual fidelity, and math/coding robustness (per SWE-bench/AIME data), while Grok 3 Mini is the practical leader for accurate, reliable tool calling and low-cost, high-volume deployments.
Pricing Analysis
GPT-5.1 input $1.25 / mTok and output $10 / mTok vs Grok 3 Mini input $0.30 / mTok and output $0.50 / mTok (payload). At 1M tokens/month (1,000 mTok): GPT-5.1 input $1,250 + output $10,000 = $11,250; Grok 3 Mini input $300 + output $500 = $800. At 10M tokens/month: GPT-5.1 ≈ $112,500 vs Grok 3 Mini ≈ $8,000. At 100M tokens/month: GPT-5.1 ≈ $1,125,000 vs Grok 3 Mini ≈ $80,000. The ~20x price ratio (payload priceRatio: 20) means enterprise scale or high-throughput apps should care: choose Grok 3 Mini to cut costs dramatically; choose GPT-5.1 when the quality/risk tradeoff justifies >$100k/month incremental spend.
Real-World Cost Comparison
Bottom Line
Choose GPT-5.1 if you need top-tier strategic analysis, multilingual output, long-context handling, or higher coding/math performance (GPT-5.1: strategic 5, multilingual 5, long context 5; SWE-bench 68%, AIME 88.6% in payload) and you can absorb significantly higher token costs. Choose Grok 3 Mini if your app relies on reliable tool calling (Grok tool calling = 5 vs GPT-5.1 = 4), raw throughput, or tight budgets — it costs about 1/20th per-token and keeps monthly spend manageable for high-volume use.
How We Test
We test every model against our 12-benchmark suite covering tool calling, agentic planning, creative problem solving, safety calibration, and more. Each test is scored 1–5 by an LLM judge. Read our full methodology.