ERNIE 4.5 Max vs Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared ERNIE 4.5 Max and Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; ERNIE 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
ERNIE 4.5 Max
ERNIE 4.5 Max is a multimodal model from Baidu. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $14.41 per million input tokens and $53.71 per million output tokens, and averages 80.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.41 / 1M
- Output
- $53.71 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.6
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision
Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision is a multimodal model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $14.91 per million input tokens and $71.00 per million output tokens, and averages 82.0 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.91 / 1M
- Output
- $71.00 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 82.0
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | ERNIE 4.5 Max | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $14.41 | $14.91 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $53.71 | $71.00 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 200,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 80.6 | 82.0 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1423.7 | 1451.3 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 2, Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision wins 10, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | ERNIE 4.5 Max | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 80.8 | 83.9 | 3.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.4 | 78.0 | 1.6 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 68.9 | 72.4 | 3.5 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| HumanEval | 87.7 | 85.8 | 1.9 | ERNIE 4.5 Max |
| MATH-500 | 84.2 | 82.9 | 1.3 | ERNIE 4.5 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 79.5 | 80.0 | 0.5 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 73.0 | 76.0 | 3.0 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| IFEval | 87.1 | 90.2 | 3.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| TruthfulQA | 83.6 | 84.1 | 0.5 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| HellaSwag | 87.7 | 90.8 | 3.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| MMMU | 78.1 | 78.2 | 0.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1423.7 | 1451.3 | 27.6 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, ERNIE 4.5 Max costs about $24.23 per million tokens and Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision costs about $28.93. ERNIE 4.5 Max is roughly 16% cheaper than Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for ERNIE 4.5 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 2, Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision wins 10, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision leads ERNIE 4.5 Max by 1.4 points (82.0 versus 80.6).
The price picture favours ERNIE 4.5 Max. The context picture favours Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision for quality-sensitive work and ERNIE 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose ERNIE 4.5 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
Choose Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 200,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is ERNIE 4.5 Max better than Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision?
On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision leads ERNIE 4.5 Max by 1.4 points (82.0 versus 80.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 2 benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision wins 10.
Which is cheaper, ERNIE 4.5 Max or Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision?
ERNIE 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $24.23 per million tokens, versus $28.93 for Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens. ERNIE 4.5 Max has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
ERNIE 4.5 Max is proprietary; Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 2.5 Pro Vision for quality-sensitive work and ERNIE 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.