GPT-5 nano vs Grok 3

GPT-5 nano vs Grok 3: GPT-5 nano is cheaper by 98% on average. GPT-5 nano from Azure OpenAI (272,000-token context, reasoning, tool calls) vs. Grok 3 from xAI (131,072-token context, tool calls). Use Agent Command Center to A/B both in shadow mode and pick the winner per workload.

Side-by-side cost

Live workload comparison

Same workload run through both models. The cheaper one is highlighted.

3,000
0272,000
400
0131,072
5,000
01,000,000
GPT-5 nanoCheaper
Azure OpenAI
$47.18/mo
Input $0.0500/M · Output $0.400/M
xAI
$2,283/mo
Input $3.00/M · Output $15.00/M
At this workload, GPT-5 nano is 98% cheaper than Grok 3 — a savings of $2,236/month ($26,828/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
  model: gpt-5-nano
  provider: azure-openai
fallback:
  model: grok-3
  provider: xai
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 }   # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live
GPT-5 nano Grok 3
xAI
Input price $0.0500/M $3.00/M
Output price $0.400/M $15.00/M
Context window 272,000 131,072
Max output 128,000 131,072
Function calling
Vision
Audio input
Reasoning
Prompt caching
Structured output
Pricing verified May 12, 2026 May 12, 2026
Cheaper option
~98% cheaper than Grok 3
Larger context
272,000 tokens
More capabilities
5 of 6 capability flags advertised

Benchmark comparison

Side-by-side public benchmark scores. Greener bar = winner.

Chatbot Arena ELOgeneral
GPT-5 nano
1,325
Grok 3
1,402
HumanEvalcode
GPT-5 nano
86.3%
Grok 3
MMLU-Proreasoning
GPT-5 nano
73.0%
Grok 3
79.9%
GPQA Diamondreasoning
GPT-5 nano
Grok 3
75.4%
AIME 2024math
GPT-5 nano
Grok 3
52.2%