GPT-5 mini
OpenAI · released 2026-01-15
Quality (AA Index)84
Input price$0.25
Output price$2.00
Context400K
Throughput280 tok/s
P50 latency0.3s
GPT-5 mini vs Grok 3
Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.
Add a modelUp to 4 models can be compared
all prices in USD per 1M tokens
Grok 3
xAI · released 2026-02-20
Quality (AA Index)85
Input price$2.50
Output price$12.00
Context128K
Throughput95 tok/s
P50 latency1.4s
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Head-to-head specs
Green column = winner per metric| Metric | GPT-5 mini | Grok 3 | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
Input price /1M tokens | $0.25 | $2.50 | GPT-5 mini −90% |
Output price /1M tokens | $2.00 | $12.00 | GPT-5 mini −83% |
Context window max input length | 400K | 128K | GPT-5 mini +3.1× |
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100) | 84 | 85 | Grok 3 +1pt |
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000) | — | — | Tied |
Throughput tokens per second | 280 | 95 | GPT-5 mini +195% |
P50 latency first token | 0.3s | 1.4s | GPT-5 mini −79% |
Vision multimodal | Tied | ||
Function calling tool use | Tied | ||
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought | Tied |
Monthly cost across common scenarios
Default usage assumptions| Scenario | GPT-5 mini | Grok 3 |
|---|---|---|
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok | $510 | $3.7K |
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok | $480 | $4.1K |
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok | $750 | $5.5K |
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok | $360 | $2.6K |
Our pick
For most workloads, choose GPT-5 mini.
- 90% cheaper input price, which compounds at scale
- 3.1× the context window — better for long documents and agents
- 195% faster throughput — matters for streaming UX and voice agents
GPT-5 family inheritance at a fraction of the cost — strong on routine tasks but visibly weaker on multi-step reasoning. Default choice when GPT-5 is overkill.
Choose Grok 3 instead if: Tradeoffs for this pair have not yet been documented. The quality difference may be small enough that workload fit, integration cost, and team familiarity decide the choice.
Read our deep analysis
Why pick? Use both with smart routing
Phase 2 · gateway with fallback chainSet GPT-5 mini as primary, Grok 3 as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when GPT-5 mini errors.
PHASE 2 PREVIEW · gateway not live yetThis endpoint does not exist yet. The gateway is in Phase 2 — what you see below is a design preview of the planned interface, not a live API. We will email subscribers when it launches.
Preview the planned API call
$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
-d '{
"routing": {
"primary": "openai/gpt-5-mini",
"fallback": ["xai/grok-3"]
},
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
}'