o3-mini vs Grok 3 [Beta]

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.

o3-mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 56 to 40. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

o3-mini's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 82.1 against 35.8. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 86.9 to 42.

o3-mini is the reasoning model in the pair, while Grok 3 [Beta] is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. o3-mini gives you the larger context window at 200K, compared with 128K for Grok 3 [Beta].

Quick Verdict

Pick o3-mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Grok 3 [Beta] only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Knowledge

o3-mini

o3-mini

82.1

Grok 3 [Beta]

35.8

86.9
MMLU
42
77.2
GPQA
41
-
SuperGPQA
39
-
OpenBookQA
37
-
MMLU-Pro
53
-
HLE
3

Coding

o3-mini

o3-mini

49.3

Grok 3 [Beta]

21.3

49.3
SWE-bench Verified
19
-
HumanEval
34
-
LiveCodeBench
11

Mathematics

o3-mini

o3-mini

87.3

Grok 3 [Beta]

43.3

87.3
AIME 2024
44
-
AIME 2023
42
-
AIME 2025
43
-
HMMT Feb 2023
38
-
HMMT Feb 2024
40
-
HMMT Feb 2025
39
-
BRUMO 2025
41
-
MATH-500
59

Reasoning

Grok 3 [Beta]
-
SimpleQA
40
-
MuSR
38
-
BBH
62

Instruction Following

o3-mini

o3-mini

93.9

Grok 3 [Beta]

67

93.9
IFEval
67

Multilingual

Grok 3 [Beta]
-
MGSM
60

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, o3-mini or Grok 3 [Beta]?

o3-mini is ahead overall, 56 to 40. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 86.9 and 42.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, o3-mini or Grok 3 [Beta]?

o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 35.8. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, o3-mini or Grok 3 [Beta]?

o3-mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 49.3 versus 21.3. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, o3-mini or Grok 3 [Beta]?

o3-mini has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 87.3 versus 43.3. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, o3-mini or Grok 3 [Beta]?

o3-mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 67. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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