Gemini 2.5 Pro Max vs o3 Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 2.5 Pro Max and o3 Turbo 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
o3 Turbo
o3 Turbo is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $16.63 per million input tokens and $83.71 per million output tokens, and averages 83.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.63 / 1M
- Output
- $83.71 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 83.4
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | o3 Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $16.94 | $16.63 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $64.80 | $83.71 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 200,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 65,536 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 84.8 | 83.4 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1456.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 7, o3 Turbo wins 4, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | o3 Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.7 | 82.7 | 4.0 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 79.8 | 77.7 | 2.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.5 | 70.7 | 4.8 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| HumanEval | 87.0 | 87.4 | 0.4 | o3 Turbo |
| MATH-500 | 91.6 | 90.6 | 1.0 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| AIME 2025 | 82.6 | 83.0 | 0.4 | o3 Turbo |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.9 | 80.7 | 0.8 | o3 Turbo |
| IFEval | 91.3 | 89.1 | 2.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.5 | 83.6 | 1.9 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.9 | 91.8 | 1.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| MMMU | 79.7 | 79.7 | 0.0 | Tie |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1456.2 | 6.0 | o3 Turbo |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max costs about $28.91 per million tokens and o3 Turbo costs about $33.40. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is roughly 13% cheaper than o3 Turbo. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 200,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 7, o3 Turbo wins 4, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads o3 Turbo by 1.4 points (84.8 versus 83.4).
The price picture favours Gemini 2.5 Pro Max. The context picture is effectively a tie. 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 o3 Turbo if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
FAQ
Is Gemini 2.5 Pro Max better than o3 Turbo?
On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads o3 Turbo by 1.4 points (84.8 versus 83.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 7 benchmarks, o3 Turbo wins 4.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max or o3 Turbo?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $28.91 per million tokens, versus $33.40 for o3 Turbo.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 200,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is proprietary; o3 Turbo 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.