Gemini 2.5 Pro Max vs o4 Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 2.5 Pro Max and o4 Vision 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
o4 Vision
o4 Vision is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.01 per million input tokens and $90.05 per million output tokens, and averages 84.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.01 / 1M
- Output
- $90.05 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 84.5
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | o4 Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $16.94 | $17.01 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $64.80 | $90.05 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 200,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 65,536 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 84.8 | 84.5 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1473.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 5, o4 Vision wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max | o4 Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.7 | 84.2 | 2.5 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 79.8 | 80.9 | 1.1 | o4 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.5 | 75.6 | 0.1 | o4 Vision |
| HumanEval | 87.0 | 88.9 | 1.9 | o4 Vision |
| MATH-500 | 91.6 | 91.7 | 0.1 | o4 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 82.6 | 80.4 | 2.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.9 | 81.3 | 1.4 | o4 Vision |
| IFEval | 91.3 | 89.1 | 2.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.5 | 85.3 | 0.2 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.9 | 91.2 | 1.7 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Max |
| MMMU | 79.7 | 80.7 | 1.0 | o4 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1450.2 | 1473.2 | 23.0 | o4 Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max costs about $28.91 per million tokens and o4 Vision costs about $35.27. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is roughly 18% cheaper than o4 Vision. 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 5, o4 Vision wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads o4 Vision by 0.3 points (84.8 versus 84.5).
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 o4 Vision if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
FAQ
Is Gemini 2.5 Pro Max better than o4 Vision?
On the index average, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max leads o4 Vision by 0.3 points (84.8 versus 84.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 2.5 Pro Max wins 5 benchmarks, o4 Vision wins 7.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro Max or o4 Vision?
Gemini 2.5 Pro Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $28.91 per million tokens, versus $35.27 for o4 Vision.
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; o4 Vision 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.