GPT-5.2 vs Grok 3 Mini

In our 12-test suite GPT-5.2 wins 5 tests, Grok 3 Mini wins 1, and 6 tests tie. GPT-5.2 wins: strategic analysis 5 vs 3 (tied for 1st of 54 models in our ranking), creative problem solving 5 vs 3 (tied for 1st of 54), safety calibration 5 vs 2 (tied for 1st of 55), agentic planning 5 vs 3 (tied for 1st of 54) and multilingual 5 vs 4 (tied for 1st of 55). These wins mean GPT-5.2 is measurably stronger for nuanced tradeoff reasoning, non-obvious idea generation, robust refusal/allow calibration, multi-step goal decomposition, and high-quality non-English output. Grok 3 Mini wins tool calling 5 vs 4 (tied for 1st of 54), so it is the better choice when function selection, argument accuracy, and sequencing are the priority. Tests that tie (structured output 4/4, constrained rewriting 4/4, faithfulness 5/5, classification 4/4, long context 5/5, persona consistency 5/5) indicate similar performance on JSON/schema adherence, tight rewriting, sticking to source material, routing/classification, long-context retrieval, and persona maintenance. Beyond our internal scores, GPT-5.2 also scores 73.8% on SWE-bench Verified and 96.1% on AIME 2025 (both from Epoch AI), reinforcing its strength on coding verification and high-end math; Grok 3 Mini has no external benchmark scores in the payload.

GPT-5.2 output: $14 per mtok; input: $1.75 per mtok. Grok 3 Mini output: $0.50 per mtok; input: $0.30 per mtok. Per 1M tokens (1,000 mtok): GPT-5.2 output = $14,000; input = $1,750; total if equal input+output = $15,750. Grok 3 Mini per 1M: output = $500; input = $300; total = $800. At 10M tokens: GPT-5.2 output = $140,000 vs Grok $5,000; at 100M: GPT-5.2 output = $1,400,000 vs Grok $50,000. The payload shows a 28× output price ratio, so organizations processing millions of tokens monthly (SaaS, search, large-scale chat) should care about the cost gap; GPT-5.2’s premium may be justifiable for high-risk or high-value tasks, while Grok 3 Mini is the economical option for bulk throughput and developer-facing automation.

Choose GPT-5.2 if you need top-tier strategic reasoning, creative problem solving, safety-sensitive behavior, agentic planning, multilingual quality, or best-in-class math on external benchmarks (SWE-bench 73.8%, AIME 96.1% per Epoch AI) and you can justify higher cost. Choose Grok 3 Mini if you need a low-cost model for high-throughput production, prioritized tool-calling/function orchestration (tool calling rank tied for 1st), or lightweight logic tasks where a 28× output price gap ($14 vs $0.5/mtok) would make GPT-5.2 prohibitively expensive.