Gemini 3 Pro Max vs GPT-5.2 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Pro Max and GPT-5.2 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
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
GPT-5.2 Reasoning
GPT-5.2 Reasoning is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $20.98 per million input tokens and $102.78 per million output tokens, and averages 87.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $20.98 / 1M
- Output
- $102.78 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.5
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Pro Max | GPT-5.2 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $20.57 | $20.98 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $112.92 | $102.78 | B |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | A |
| Max output | 128,000 | 65,536 | A |
| Average score | 87.9 | 87.5 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1477.5 | 1500.4 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Pro Max | GPT-5.2 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 89.5 | 87.0 | 2.5 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8 | 87.0 | 5.2 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.6 | 78.2 | 1.6 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 92.4 | 0.5 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 92.1 | 91.4 | 0.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| AIME 2025 | 89.6 | 84.9 | 4.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 83.6 | 84.6 | 1.0 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| IFEval | 94.7 | 95.0 | 0.3 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 89.6 | 88.2 | 1.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.6 | 92.5 | 0.1 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| MMMU | 84.4 | 81.5 | 2.9 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| Arena Elo | 1477.5 | 1500.4 | 22.9 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
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 Reasoning costs about $41.43. GPT-5.2 Reasoning is roughly 5% 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 Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads GPT-5.2 Reasoning by 0.4 points (87.9 versus 87.5).
The price picture favours GPT-5.2 Reasoning. 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 Gemini 3 Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and GPT-5.2 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Gemini 3 Pro Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
Choose GPT-5.2 Reasoning if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Pro Max better than GPT-5.2 Reasoning?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads GPT-5.2 Reasoning by 0.4 points (87.9 versus 87.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6 benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 6.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Max or GPT-5.2 Reasoning?
GPT-5.2 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $41.43 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 Reasoning has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Pro Max is proprietary; GPT-5.2 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and GPT-5.2 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.