What is the rate limit for Grok 3 Mini?

The current model record does not publish a numeric rate limit for Grok 3 Mini. Confirm the quota for your plan in the console, then run a short load test at your expected concurrency to establish the effective ceiling before production.

How does Grok 3 Mini score on benchmarks?

Recorded results for Grok 3 Mini: aa_intelligence_index 21.9; arena_text 74.1. Benchmark positions are a coarse filter only — run your own prompts against the candidate models before you commit, because ranking shifts with task shape and prompt style.

Does Grok 3 Mini have a free tier?

Grok 3 Mini is billed per use and the record publishes no free-tier allowance. The current published rates are input $0.3000 per 1M tokens and output $0.5000 per 1M tokens. Trial credit or promotional quota is tied to your account rather than to the model, so check the console before planning around a free tier.

Can you call Grok 3 Mini with the OpenAI SDK you already use?

Yes. Grok 3 Mini is reachable through an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so an existing OpenAI SDK client works after pointing the base URL at MixRoute and setting the model parameter to grok-3-mini . Keep your current request and response handling.

What should you evaluate before moving production traffic to Grok 3 Mini?

Before switching production traffic to Grok 3 Mini, run a pilot on a representative slice of your traffic and check output quality, latency at peak concurrency, and cost per request. Verify the error and retry behaviour, and confirm the request limits you depend on match your plan.

Model detail

Grok 3 Mini

Provided by xAI

Pay-as-you-go

A lightweight model that thinks before responding. Fast, smart, and great for logic-based tasks that do not require deep domain knowledge. The raw thinking traces are accessible.

Model specs

Model ID: grok-3-mini

Context length: 131.072K
Max output: 131.072K
I/O modalities
Released: 2025-06

API endpoints

One MixRoute gateway, OpenAI-compatible

OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions POST

Pricing

Flat rate, unit: /1M Tokens

Input

$0.3000 /1M Tokens

Completion

$0.5000 /1M Tokens

Cache read

$0.0750 /1M Tokens

Selection summary

Quickly judge whether it fits your workload

What is this model good for?

A lightweight model that thinks before responding

A lightweight model that thinks before responding. Fast, smart, and great for logic-based tasks that do not require deep domain knowledge. The raw thinking traces are accessible.

What should you check before using it?

131,072 context, 131,072 output tokens

xAI model that supports reasoning, tool calling and structured output. Knowledge cutoff: 2025-02. Released 2025-06-10.

Why use it through MixRoute?

Grok 3 Mini runs tools and structured output here

Tool calling and structured output run on that route as well. MixRoute serves Grok 3 Mini on the OpenAI-compatible endpoint /v1/chat/completions; point your existing client at https://api.mixroute.ai/v1 with the model ID grok-3-mini and re-run your integration tests.

Capabilities & compatibility

Unconfirmed capabilities stay "Unknown," no guesses

Tool calling

Grok 3 Mini supports function and tool calls.

EX Send a tools definition; the response returns tool_calls to execute and feed results back.

Structured output

Grok 3 Mini can produce JSON-formatted output on demand.

EX response_format: { type: "json_schema" } forces valid JSON output.

Streaming

Grok 3 Mini supports streamed responses.

EX stream: true streams tokens incrementally, so chat UIs render as they arrive.

Prompt caching

Grok 3 Mini supports prompt caching under supported routing conditions.

EX Keep the system prompt and tool definitions at the start of the request; repeated prefixes are automatically billed at the cache-read rate.

OpenAI SDK

Call Grok 3 Mini through MixRoute's OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

EX Change base_url to https://api.mixroute.ai/v1; everything else follows the OpenAI style.

Token cost estimator

Live estimate from this page's pricing, not an actual bill

Input tokens Max per request 131.072K

Output tokens Max per request 131.072K

Requests / month

Cache hit rate 0%

Share of the same prefix read repeatedly, up to 100%

FAQ

Grok 3 Mini is a reasoning model. Reasoning effort can be tuned per request. Lower effort settings cut reasoning tokens and cost for routine work; reserve higher settings for problems that need deeper search. Measure quality at two or three settings before fixing one in production.

Get started

01

Create an API key

Generate a key in the Console; one key calls every model.
02

Set the base URL

Fully OpenAI SDK-compatible; just swap the URL to connect.

https://api.mixroute.ai/v1
03

Specify the model ID

In the request's model field, enter:

grok-3-mini

Create an API key

New users get $5 in free credits

Test this model and alternate routes with the same request format

Start from a real workload, then let quality, total cost, and failure conditions decide whether to send production traffic.

Create an API key View integration docs