Gemini 2.5 Pro Max vs Grok 3 Pro: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 2.5 Pro Max and Grok 3 Pro on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $16.94 per million input tokens and $64.80 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.94 / 1M
- Output
- $64.80 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Grok 3 Pro
Grok 3 Pro is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $16.61 per million input tokens and $73.49 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.61 / 1M
- Output
- $73.49 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 83.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | Grok 3 Pro | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $16.94 | $16.61 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $64.80 | $73.49 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 400,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 84.8 | 83.8 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1448.4 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 8, Grok 3 Pro wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | Grok 3 Pro | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.7 | 83.5 | 3.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 79.8 | 81.3 | 1.5 | Grok 3 Pro |
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.5 | 71.4 | 4.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| HumanEval | 87.0 | 89.9 | 2.9 | Grok 3 Pro |
| MATH-500 | 91.6 | 87.0 | 4.6 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| AIME 2025 | 82.6 | 85.5 | 2.9 | Grok 3 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.9 | 80.7 | 0.8 | Grok 3 Pro |
| IFEval | 91.3 | 88.6 | 2.7 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.5 | 84.6 | 0.9 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.9 | 90.7 | 2.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| MMMU | 79.7 | 78.9 | 0.8 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1448.4 | 1.8 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max costs about $28.91 per million tokens and Grok 3 Pro costs about $30.83. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is roughly 6% cheaper than Grok 3 Pro. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 3 Pro has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Gemini 2.5 Pro Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 8, Grok 3 Pro wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads Grok 3 Pro by 1.0 points (84.8 versus 83.8).
The price picture favours Gemini 2.5 Pro Max. The context picture favours Grok 3 Pro. 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 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Gemini 2.5 Pro Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
Choose Grok 3 Pro if
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Gemini 2.5 Pro Max better than Grok 3 Pro?
On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads Grok 3 Pro by 1.0 points (84.8 versus 83.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 8 benchmarks, Grok 3 Pro wins 4.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max or Grok 3 Pro?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $28.91 per million tokens, versus $30.83 for Grok 3 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Pro has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is proprietary; Grok 3 Pro is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 2.5 Pro Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.