Grok 4.3 vs o3-mini: price, context and capabilities

Choose Grok 4.3 for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs, agentic coding, tool use and support agents and the latest release; on the other points the two are level or the data is missing.

In short

  • Grok 4.3 is 19% cheaper than o3-mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.93 / 1M tokens).
  • Grok 4.3 reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k.
  • Grok 4.3 is the newer model (Apr 30, 2026, against Jan 31, 2025).

Open in the full comparison table

What a month costsAt 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month.
  1. Grok 4.3xAI$37.50
  2. o3-miniOpenAI$44.00

Try your own volumes in the calculator

Which should you choose?

Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.

High-volume, cost-sensitive work

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 costs 19% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($1.56 against $1.93 per million tokens).

Writing and code generation

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 charges $2.50 per million output tokens, against $4.40 for o3-mini. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.

Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 charges $0.20 per million cached input tokens, against $0.55 for o3-mini.

Very long inputs

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 reads up to 1M tokens per request, against 200k for o3-mini.

Agentic coding

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 scores 37.9% on Terminal-Bench Hard, against 6.8% for o3-mini.

Tool use and support agents

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 scores 97.7% on τ²-Bench (agentic tool use), against 28.7% for o3-mini.

Latest release

Choose Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 is the newer release (Apr 30, 2026, against Jan 31, 2025 for o3-mini).

Monthly cost at three volumes

VolumeGrok 4.3o3-miniDifference
Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens $1.88 $2.20 Grok 4.3, $0.33 less
Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens $37.50 $44.00 Grok 4.3, $6.50 less
Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens $875.00 $990.00 Grok 4.3, $115.00 less

Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.

Specifications side by side

Grok 4.3o3-mini
ProviderxAIOpenAI
CategoryLanguage modelsLanguage models
StatusGenerally availableDeprecated
Headline price$1.56 / 1M tokens$1.93 / 1M tokens
Input$1.25 / 1M tokens$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output$2.50 / 1M tokens$4.40 / 1M tokens
Cached input$0.20 / 1M tokens$0.55 / 1M tokens
Context window1M200k
Max outputNo data100k
ReleasedApr 30, 2026Jan 31, 2025
Knowledge cutoffNo dataOctober 2023
LicenceProprietaryProprietary
CapabilitiesVision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch APIVision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API
API model idgrok-4.3o3-mini

Benchmarks side by side

Leader in bold.

BenchmarkGrok 4.3o3-mini
Terminal-Bench Hard 37.9% 6.8%
GPQA Diamond 90.1% 74.8%
Humanity's Last Exam 37.2% 7.9%
τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) 97.7% 28.7%
Intelligence Index 24.9 No data
SciCode 48.3% No data
IFBench (instruction following) 81.3% No data
MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) 78.1% No data
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) 73% 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 Grok 4.3 or o3-mini?

Choose Grok 4.3 for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs, agentic coding, tool use and support agents and the latest release; on the other points the two are level or the data is missing.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 or o3-mini?

Grok 4.3 is 19% cheaper than o3-mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.93 / 1M tokens).

Which has the larger context window, Grok 4.3 or o3-mini?

Grok 4.3 reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k.

What is the difference between Grok 4.3 and o3-mini?

Grok 4.3 is made by xAI and o3-mini by OpenAI. Grok 4.3 is 19% cheaper than o3-mini at the headline price ($1.56 / 1M tokens vs $1.93 / 1M tokens). Grok 4.3 reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k. Grok 4.3 is the newer model (Apr 30, 2026, against Jan 31, 2025).

Which is better for coding, Grok 4.3 or o3-mini?

Grok 4.3 scores 37.9% on Terminal-Bench Hard, against 6.8% for o3-mini.

How much do Grok 4.3 and o3-mini cost per month?

At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Grok 4.3 costs $37.50 and o3-mini costs $44.00, at standard rates.

Which is newer, Grok 4.3 or o3-mini?

Grok 4.3 was released on Apr 30, 2026 and o3-mini on Jan 31, 2025.