Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Grok Build 0.1 0616 |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.4 | $1 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $2 | $2 |
Verdict. Grok Build 0.1 0616 takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Grok Build 0.1 0616 is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Grok Build 0.1 0616 makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Mistral Medium 3.1 is strongest on Coding Index (20.5), Intelligence Index (14.7). Grok Build 0.1 0616 leads on Coding Index (51.5), Intelligence Index (40.7).
Speed. On throughput, Mistral Medium 3.1 generates tokens at 106 tok/s versus 55 tok/s — about 48% faster. On time-to-first-token, Grok Build 0.1 0616 responds in 510ms vs 1470ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Mistral and SpaceXAI sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Mistral tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while SpaceXAI often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Mistral Medium 3.1 costs $42.00 ($504/year); Grok Build 0.1 0616 costs $60.00 ($720/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Mistral Medium 3.1 ≈ $6.00/run, Grok Build 0.1 0616 ≈ $9.00/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Mistral Medium 3.1 ≈ $280/run, Grok Build 0.1 0616 ≈ $400/run. Mistral Medium 3.1 becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.80/M tokens vs $1.25/M for Grok Build 0.1 0616.
Grok Build 0.1 0616 wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Mistral Medium 3.1. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Mistral Medium 3.1 generates tokens faster at 106 tok/s vs 55 tok/s. However, Grok Build 0.1 0616 has lower time-to-first-token (0.51s vs 1.47s).
Choose based on your priorities: Mistral Medium 3.1 for lower cost, Grok Build 0.1 0616 for stronger benchmark performance, and Mistral Medium 3.1 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.