Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

Gemini 3 Pro Max vs GPT-5.2 Max: which model should you choose?

We compared Gemini 3 Pro Max and GPT-5.2 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.2 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

Google DeepMind

Gemini 3 Pro Max

Gemini 3 Pro Max is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $20.57 per million input tokens and $112.92 per million output tokens, and averages 87.9 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$20.57 / 1M
Output
$112.92 / 1M
Context
2,000,000
Avg score
87.9
Open weights
No
Full Gemini 3 Pro Max page
OpenAI

GPT-5.2 Max

GPT-5.2 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $21.39 per million input tokens and $90.69 per million output tokens, and averages 89.2 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$21.39 / 1M
Output
$90.69 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
89.2
Open weights
No
Full GPT-5.2 Max page

Specification comparison

SpecGemini 3 Pro MaxGPT-5.2 MaxEdge
Input price / 1M$20.57$21.39A
Output price / 1M$112.92$90.69B
Context window2,000,0001,000,000A
Max output128,000128,000Tie
Average score87.989.2B
Arena Elo1477.51495.3B
Open weightsNoNoTie

Benchmark comparison

Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 3, GPT-5.2 Max wins 9, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkGemini 3 Pro MaxGPT-5.2 MaxGapWinner
MMLU-Pro89.587.61.9Gemini 3 Pro Max
GPQA Diamond81.883.41.6GPT-5.2 Max
SWE-bench Verified76.680.53.9GPT-5.2 Max
HumanEval91.993.61.7GPT-5.2 Max
MATH-50092.196.74.6GPT-5.2 Max
AIME 202589.688.21.4Gemini 3 Pro Max
LiveCodeBench83.684.81.2GPT-5.2 Max
IFEval94.795.20.5GPT-5.2 Max
TruthfulQA89.688.11.5Gemini 3 Pro Max
HellaSwag92.696.13.5GPT-5.2 Max
MMMU84.486.92.5GPT-5.2 Max
Arena Elo1477.51495.317.8GPT-5.2 Max

Price analysis

On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Pro Max costs about $43.66 per million tokens and GPT-5.2 Max costs about $38.72. GPT-5.2 Max is roughly 11% cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.

Gemini 3 Pro Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for GPT-5.2 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.

Verdict

Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 3, GPT-5.2 Max wins 9, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.2 Max leads Gemini 3 Pro Max by 1.3 points (89.2 versus 87.9).

The price picture favours GPT-5.2 Max. The context picture favours Gemini 3 Pro 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 GPT-5.2 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

Choose Gemini 3 Pro Max if

  • You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.

Choose GPT-5.2 Max if

  • You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
  • Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.

FAQ

Is Gemini 3 Pro Max better than GPT-5.2 Max?

On the index average, GPT-5.2 Max leads Gemini 3 Pro Max by 1.3 points (89.2 versus 87.9). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 3 benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Max wins 9.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Max or GPT-5.2 Max?

GPT-5.2 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $38.72 per million tokens, versus $43.66 for Gemini 3 Pro Max.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 3 Pro Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.2 Max has 1,000,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

Gemini 3 Pro Max is proprietary; GPT-5.2 Max is proprietary.

Which should I choose for production?

If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.2 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

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