Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

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

We compared Gemini 3 Pro Max and GPT-5.2 Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 Turbo 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 Turbo

GPT-5.2 Turbo is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $20.73 per million input tokens and $96.05 per million output tokens, and averages 87.4 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$20.73 / 1M
Output
$96.05 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
87.4
Open weights
No
Full GPT-5.2 Turbo page

Specification comparison

SpecGemini 3 Pro MaxGPT-5.2 TurboEdge
Input price / 1M$20.57$20.73A
Output price / 1M$112.92$96.05B
Context window2,000,0001,000,000A
Max output128,0008,192A
Average score87.987.4A
Arena Elo1477.51500.3B
Open weightsNoNoTie

Benchmark comparison

Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6, GPT-5.2 Turbo wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkGemini 3 Pro MaxGPT-5.2 TurboGapWinner
MMLU-Pro89.587.32.2Gemini 3 Pro Max
GPQA Diamond81.884.02.2GPT-5.2 Turbo
SWE-bench Verified76.677.40.8GPT-5.2 Turbo
HumanEval91.993.21.3GPT-5.2 Turbo
MATH-50092.192.70.6GPT-5.2 Turbo
AIME 202589.686.72.9Gemini 3 Pro Max
LiveCodeBench83.682.51.1Gemini 3 Pro Max
IFEval94.792.02.7Gemini 3 Pro Max
TruthfulQA89.687.32.3Gemini 3 Pro Max
HellaSwag92.695.52.9GPT-5.2 Turbo
MMMU84.483.31.1Gemini 3 Pro Max
Arena Elo1477.51500.322.8GPT-5.2 Turbo

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 Turbo costs about $39.56. GPT-5.2 Turbo is roughly 9% 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 Turbo. 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 Turbo wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads GPT-5.2 Turbo by 0.5 points (87.9 versus 87.4).

The price picture favours GPT-5.2 Turbo. 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 Turbo 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 Turbo if

  • Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.

FAQ

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

On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads GPT-5.2 Turbo by 0.5 points (87.9 versus 87.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6 benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Turbo wins 6.

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

GPT-5.2 Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $39.56 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 Turbo has 1,000,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

Gemini 3 Pro Max is proprietary; GPT-5.2 Turbo 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 Turbo for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.

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