High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning
Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning costs 7% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($1.56 against $1.69 per million tokens).
GPT-5.4 Mini vs Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning: price, context and capabilities
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), agentic coding, tool use and support agents and reasoning over long documents. Choose Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation and very long inputs.
In short
- Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning is 7% cheaper than GPT-5.4 Mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.69 / 1M tokens).
- Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning reads more per request: 1M tokens against 400k.
- Only GPT-5.4 Mini offers reasoning.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Writing and code generation
Choose Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning
Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning charges $2.50 per million output tokens, against $4.50 for GPT-5.4 Mini. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini
GPT-5.4 Mini charges $0.08 per million cached input tokens, against $0.20 for Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning.
Very long inputs
Choose Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning
Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning reads up to 1M tokens per request, against 400k for GPT-5.4 Mini.
Agentic coding
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini
GPT-5.4 Mini scores 52.3% on Terminal-Bench Hard, against 16.7% for Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning.
Tool use and support agents
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini
GPT-5.4 Mini scores 83.3% on τ²-Bench (agentic tool use), against 59.9% for Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning.
Reasoning over long documents
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini
GPT-5.4 Mini scores 77% on Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR), against 23.3% for Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning.
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | GPT-5.4 Mini | Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $1.88 | $1.88 | = |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $37.50 | $37.50 | = |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $825.00 | $875.00 | GPT-5.4 Mini, $50.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| GPT-5.4 Mini | Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | xAI |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Legacy | Generally available |
| Headline price | $1.69 / 1M tokens | $1.56 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $0.75 / 1M tokens | $1.25 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $4.50 / 1M tokens | $2.50 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.075 / 1M tokens | $0.20 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 400k | 1M |
| Max output | 128k | No data |
| Released | Mar 17, 2026 | March 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | August 2025 | No data |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API | Vision, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API |
| API model id | gpt-5.4-mini | grok-4.20-0309-non-reasoning |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.4 Mini | Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 52.3% | 16.7% |
| GPQA Diamond | 87.5% | 77.6% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 28.1% | 27.9% |
| IFBench (instruction following) | 73.3% | 49.3% |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | 83.3% | 59.9% |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 73.3% | 64.9% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77% | 23.3% |
| Intelligence Index | 24.1 | No data |
| SciCode | 52.1% | No data |
Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose GPT-5.4 Mini or Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning?
Choose GPT-5.4 Mini for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), agentic coding, tool use and support agents and reasoning over long documents. Choose Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation and very long inputs.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 Mini or Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning?
Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning is 7% cheaper than GPT-5.4 Mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.69 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.4 Mini or Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning?
Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning reads more per request: 1M tokens against 400k.
What is the difference between GPT-5.4 Mini and Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning?
GPT-5.4 Mini is made by OpenAI and Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning by xAI. Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning is 7% cheaper than GPT-5.4 Mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.69 / 1M tokens). Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning reads more per request: 1M tokens against 400k. Only GPT-5.4 Mini offers reasoning.
Which is better for coding, GPT-5.4 Mini or Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning?
GPT-5.4 Mini scores 52.3% on Terminal-Bench Hard, against 16.7% for Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning.
How much do GPT-5.4 Mini and Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, GPT-5.4 Mini costs $37.50 and Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning costs $37.50, at standard rates.