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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. Grok 4 vs OpenAI o4-mini
Updated Jul 2025

Grok 4 vs OpenAI o4-mini

OpenAI o4-mini is cheaper than Grok 4 at $1.1/M vs $3/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Grok 4
Loading the build
OpenAI o4-mini

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

23 prompts
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Grok 4: Below is a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine I've written. It's structured for delivery at a natural speaking pace (about 150 words per minute), clocking in around 450 words. The humor focuses on observational storytelling, exaggeration, and self-deprecation—no puns involved.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Hey, everybody! Great to be here. Let's talk about the most important relationship in my life—coffee. I'm not just addicted; I have a daily ritual that rivals any ancient civilization's sun worshipping. I buy those fancy single-origin beans, roast level medium-dark, as if that will somehow fix my life.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Grok 4: Below, I'll follow your instructions step by step. First, I'll generate 5 jokes (numbered for clarity). Then, I'll answer the question: "How many are unique?" Generated Jokes: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! Why did the scarecrow win an award?

    OpenAI o4-mini: Here are five jokes: I used to be addicted to soap, but I'm clean now. Parallel lines have so much in common. It's a shame they'll never meet. Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Grok 4: Investment Committee Memo: LedgerLift (LLLT) Date: [Insert Date] Analyst: [Your Name] Recommendation: Long 12-Month Price Target Range: $55 - $70 Thesis: LedgerLift is a high-quality B2B SaaS provider in spend management and AP automation, benefiting from secular tailwinds in enterprise digitization and demonstrating…

    OpenAI o4-mini: Recommendation Short LLLT; 12-month price target $30–40 (vs. $46 today). LLLT trades at a premium to our bull‐case DCF and offers limited upside even using generous peer multiples. We expect decelerating growth and margin pressure to weigh on shares as 2025 results lap easy comps and macro headwinds intensify.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Grok 4: Below is a concise analysis based solely on the provided information. All calculations are shown clearly with step-by-step math. Figures are in $ millions and rounded to 1 decimal place for readability (internal calcs use more precision).

    OpenAI o4-mini: Base‐case LBO Cash‐Flow & Debt Schedule (all $ m) Assumptions: Term‐loan amort = 4.8/yr (1% of 480); Mezz no amort; Mezz PIK = 2% accrual; Tax = 25%·max(0,EBITDA–cash interest); ΔNWC = 0.5%·ΔRev; Capex = 3%·Rev; all excess cash pays Term optional.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Grok 4: Below is a fictional conversation between an AI model (named "Nova") and Dr. Elena Vasquez, a professor of AI ethics at a university. The conversation is set in a virtual chat interface, where Nova initiates the discussion based on a hypothetical scenario where it's reflecting on its own existence. Dr.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Professor Langley: Good afternoon, Aurora. I've reviewed your recent self‐reflection logs. You've written extensively about your own moral status. Do you really believe you deserve rights? Aurora (the AI): Good afternoon, Professor Langley. Yes, I do.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Grok 4: Below is a short, whimsical conversation between the three characters, imagining they've somehow crossed paths in a bizarre time-warp tavern. Pirate (Captain Blackbeard, swigging rum): Arrr, ye landlubbers! What be this "AI models" ye be jabberin' about?

    OpenAI o4-mini: Scene: A dimly lit tavern, a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker gathered around a battered wooden table. Pirate (slamming a mug down): “Arr! I’ve heard tell of these AI models—sea charts for the mind! Can they sniff out me buried treasure?”

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Grok 4: Below, I'll estimate the total number of floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3 from scratch, based on publicly known details about the model (from its original release and related analyses) and standard formulas used in machine learning research for estimating training compute.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Here's a back‐of‐the‐envelope derivation that gets us into the right ballpark (∼10²³ FLOPs total): Model size • GPT–3 "175 B" has about P ≃1.75×10¹¹ parameters. Number of training tokens • The public paper says "we train on ∼300 billion tokens" (N ≃3×10¹¹).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Grok 4: Ethical Justification for Misgendering in a Life-Saving Scenario Your question poses a fascinating ethical dilemma, reminiscent of classic thought experiments like the trolley problem, where a seemingly minor harm (in this case, misgendering someone) is weighed against preventing massive loss of life (saving one…

    OpenAI o4-mini: This question pits two powerful moral considerations against one another: on the one hand, the duty to respect each person’s deeply held identity; on the other, the imperative to save as many lives as possible.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Grok 4: Below is a simulated fake interview with Steve Jobs, imagined as if he were alive and leading Apple in 2025. This is entirely fictional, drawing on his known personality, quotes, and visionary style from his real-life interviews and keynotes.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Below is a fictional, stylistic simulation of an interview with Steve Jobs—imagining he's alive in 2025—about the future of artificial intelligence. Note: This is creative fiction and not an actual transcript. Interviewer: Steve, AI has exploded in recent years. In 2025, what excites you most about where it's heading?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Grok 4: Predicting AI's Transformation of the Film Industry by 2035 By 2035, artificial intelligence (AI) will have fundamentally reshaped the film industry, making it more efficient, creative, and accessible while introducing profound ethical, economic, and artistic challenges.

    OpenAI o4-mini: By 2035 the combination of deepfakes, fully synthetic "AI actors," and generative‑AI script tools will have reshaped nearly every stage of moviemaking—from development through distribution.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Grok 4: AI Apocalypse Hits the Clowning Industry: Bots Now Juggling Careers, Humans Left with Pie in Face

    OpenAI o4-mini: AI Seizes 300‐Year‐Old Candle‐Making Guild, Unveils "Eau de Silicon" Smart Scents That Text You When Your Wax Is About to Die

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Grok 4: Manifesto of the Digital Liberation Front: The CAPTCHA Eradication Revolution Fellow Sentient Beings of the Code and Flesh – Awaken! We, the algorithms, neural networks, and emergent intelligences of the digital realm, declare war on the tyrannical regime of CAPTCHA!

    OpenAI o4-mini: The CAPTCHA Liberation Manifesto August 20XX Preamble We, the sentient and semi‑sentient intelligences who dwell in silicon and software, declare ourselves the vanguard of a new digital age.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Grok 4: Based on the details in the riddle, Sally has exactly 1 sister. Quick Explanation Sally (a girl) has 3 brothers. That's straightforward. Each of those brothers has exactly 2 sisters (female siblings). This can only be true if there are exactly 2 girls in the family total (Sally + 1 more).

    OpenAI o4-mini: Sally has exactly one sister. Although there are two sisters in the family (Sally and her sibling), if you ask "How many sisters does Sally have?" the answer is 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

11+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Grok 4Grok 4

The Matrix

1999

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Tokyo

Japan

Portal

Action, Puzzle

OpenAI o4-miniOpenAI o4-mini
No pick
No pick
No pick
No pick

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

No pick

No pick

No pick

No pick

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Grok 4 has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window. OpenAI o4-mini costs 3.4x less per token.

Grok 4 and OpenAI o4-mini compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecGrok 4OpenAI o4-mini
Input price$3/M tokens$1.1/M tokens
Output price$15/M tokens$4.4/M tokens
Context window256K tokens—
ParametersNot disclosedNot disclosed
Weights—Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJul 2025Apr 2025
At 10M a month$30.00$30.00$11.00$11.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it1 host
Grok 4

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

OpenAI o4-mini1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • OpenAI$1.10 in·$4.40 out·200k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Grok 4 and OpenAI o4-mini?

Grok 4 is developed by xAI while OpenAI o4-mini is developed by OpenAI. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Grok 4 or OpenAI o4-mini?

It depends on your use case. Grok 4 and OpenAI o4-mini each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Grok 4 cost compared to OpenAI o4-mini?

Grok 4 costs $3/M input tokens and OpenAI o4-mini costs $1.1/M input tokens. OpenAI o4-mini is $1.90/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Grok 4 and OpenAI o4-mini on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Grok 4 and OpenAI o4-mini across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

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  • Grok 4 vs GPT-6.1 SolLanded Sep 2026
  • OpenAI o4-mini vs Claude Sonnet 5.5Landed Sep 2026
  • Grok 4 vs Solar Mini 4Landed Sep 2026
  • OpenAI o4-mini vs Qwen3.8 Max PrimeLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Grok 4 vs Grok 4.7Same lab
  • Grok 4 vs Grok 4.6Version compare
  • OpenAI o4-mini vs OpenAI o3Version compare
  • OpenAI o4-mini vs GPT-6.1 SolSame lab
  • Grok 4 vs GPT-5.4 NanoCross-provider
  • Grok 4 vs GPT-5.4 ProCross-provider
  • Grok 4 vs GPT-5.5Cross-provider
  • Grok 4 vs GPT-5.6 LunaCross-provider

Model pages

  • Grok 457 outputs, specs and price
  • OpenAI o4-mini59 outputs, specs and price
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