Grok 3 vs Grok Code Fast 1

Our 12-test suite shows Grok 3 winning 6 benchmarks, Grok Code Fast 1 winning 0, and 6 ties. Detail by test: - Structured output: Grok 3 scores 5 vs 4 for Code Fast 1. Grok 3 is tied for 1st (tied with 24 others out of 54) while Code Fast 1 ranks 26 of 54. This means Grok 3 is more reliable when you need strict JSON/schema compliance. - Strategic analysis: Grok 3 5 vs 3 for Code Fast 1; Grok 3 ranks tied for 1st vs Code Fast 1 at rank 36. For tradeoff reasoning with numbers, Grok 3 gives measurably better answers. - Faithfulness: Grok 3 5 vs 4; Grok 3 is tied for 1st while Code Fast 1 is rank 34 of 55, so Grok 3 is less likely to deviate from source material in our tests. - Long context: Grok 3 5 vs 4; Grok 3 is tied for 1st (with 36 others) vs Code Fast 1 rank 38 — Grok 3 performed better on retrieval and accuracy at 30k+ tokens. - Persona consistency: Grok 3 5 vs 4; Grok 3 tied for 1st, Code Fast 1 ranks 38 — Grok 3 better maintains character and resists prompt injection. - Multilingual: Grok 3 5 vs 4; Grok 3 tied for 1st, Code Fast 1 ranks 36 — higher non-English parity in our tests. Ties (no clear winner): constrained rewriting (3 vs 3), creative problem solving (3 vs 3), tool calling (4 vs 4; both rank 18 of 54), classification (4 vs 4; both tied for 1st), safety calibration (2 vs 2), and agentic planning (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st). In practice this pattern means Grok 3 is clearly advantaged for strict-format outputs, long-context jobs, and faithful/multilingual applications, while Grok Code Fast 1 matches it on core coding/agentic planning and tool-calling tasks but without the same top-tier structured-output or strategic-analysis scores.

Per the payload, Grok 3 charges $3 per input mTok and $15 per output mTok; Grok Code Fast 1 charges $0.2 per input mTok and $1.5 per output mTok. Per 1M tokens (1,000 mTok): Grok 3 costs $3,000 input / $15,000 output; Grok Code Fast 1 costs $200 input / $1,500 output. Assuming a 50/50 split of input/output tokens per month, 1M tokens cost $9,000 on Grok 3 vs $850 on Grok Code Fast 1. At 10M tokens that same split is $90,000 vs $8,500; at 100M tokens it’s $900,000 vs $85,000. The cost gap is material for any team processing millions of tokens monthly — enterprises needing raw quality for structured output and long-context tasks may accept Grok 3’s higher bill; startups, analytics pipelines, or large-scale automated coding agents should prefer Grok Code Fast 1 to control costs.

Choose Grok 3 if you need high reliability on structured outputs (schema/JSON), long-context retrieval, faithfulness to sources, or multilingual parity and you can absorb significantly higher token costs. Choose Grok Code Fast 1 if you must minimize per-token spend at scale, need visible reasoning traces for agentic coding, or want a fast, economical model with strong tool-calling and agentic planning parity at a fraction of the price.