Gemini 3 Flash Max vs o3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Flash Max and o3 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Flash Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 3 Flash Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 3 Flash Max
Gemini 3 Flash Max is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $17.43 per million input tokens and $63.42 per million output tokens, and averages 85.0 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.43 / 1M
- Output
- $63.42 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 85.0
- Open weights
- No
o3 Max
o3 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.82 per million input tokens and $90.55 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.82 / 1M
- Output
- $90.55 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Flash Max | o3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.43 | $17.82 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $63.42 | $90.55 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 85.0 | 84.8 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1448.5 | 1465.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Flash Max wins 6, o3 Max wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Max | o3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.8 | 84.9 | 2.9 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.9 | 82.7 | 1.8 | o3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.8 | 71.8 | 2.0 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| HumanEval | 88.5 | 89.8 | 1.3 | o3 Max |
| MATH-500 | 88.6 | 87.0 | 1.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| AIME 2025 | 86.7 | 86.2 | 0.5 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.3 | 76.4 | 1.9 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| IFEval | 91.3 | 92.5 | 1.2 | o3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 87.1 | 87.3 | 0.2 | o3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 93.4 | 2.3 | o3 Max |
| MMMU | 81.0 | 80.8 | 0.2 | Gemini 3 Flash Max |
| Arena Elo | 1448.5 | 1465.2 | 16.7 | o3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Flash Max costs about $28.93 per million tokens and o3 Max costs about $36.00. Gemini 3 Flash Max is roughly 20% cheaper than o3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for Gemini 3 Flash Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Max wins 6, o3 Max wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash Max leads o3 Max by 0.2 points (85.0 versus 84.8).
The price picture favours Gemini 3 Flash Max. The context picture favours o3 Max. 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 3 Flash Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose o3 Max if
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Flash Max better than o3 Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash Max leads o3 Max by 0.2 points (85.0 versus 84.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Flash Max wins 6 benchmarks, o3 Max wins 6.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Max or o3 Max?
Gemini 3 Flash Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $28.93 per million tokens, versus $36.00 for o3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Flash Max has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Flash Max is proprietary; o3 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Flash Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.