# xAI Grok 3 Mini — deprecation status

> Yes — Grok 3 Mini is retired and no longer served by xAI, which has not published the exact shutdown date. The recommended replacement is Grok 4.3.

The small reasoning model of the Grok 3 generation, and the first xAI id that exposed its thinking trace, which made it briefly popular for debugging agent behaviour. It went before grok-3 itself did. The id is off the model list and its docs page 404s, with no retirement date left in xAI's documentation.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Provider | xAI |
| Model id | `grok-3-mini` |
| Status | Retired |
| Last verified | August 3, 2026 |

## Replacement

- **Grok 4.3** (`grok-4.3`) — https://modeldeprecations.dev/xai/grok-4.3
  - grok-4.3 with a low reasoning effort is the closest equivalent, though the price floor is considerably higher than Grok 3 Mini's was.
  - Parameters it accepts: https://modelparams.dev/models/xai/grok-4.3

```diff
- "model": "grok-3-mini"
+ "model": "grok-4.3"
```

## FAQ

### What replaces xAI Grok 3 Mini?

xAI recommends Grok 4.3 (`grok-4.3`) as the replacement for xAI Grok 3 Mini. grok-4.3 with a low reasoning effort is the closest equivalent, though the price floor is considerably higher than Grok 3 Mini's was.

### Is xAI Grok 3 Mini still available?

No. xAI Grok 3 Mini is retired and no longer served. Calls to it return an error.

### How do I migrate from xAI Grok 3 Mini to grok-4.3?

Swap the model id in your API call: replace "grok-3-mini" with "grok-4.3". grok-4.3 with a low reasoning effort is the closest equivalent, though the price floor is considerably higher than Grok 3 Mini's was.

## Sources

- [xAI models and pricing (no longer lists this model)](https://docs.x.ai/developers/models) — accessed 2026-08-03

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Canonical page: https://modeldeprecations.dev/xai/grok-3-mini
JSON: https://modeldeprecations.dev/api/v1/models/xai/grok-3-mini.json