Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning vs Grok 4 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning and Grok 4 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 4 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $19.69 per million input tokens and $98.36 per million output tokens, and averages 87.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.69 / 1M
- Output
- $98.36 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 87.5
- Open weights
- No
Grok 4 Max
Grok 4 Max is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.70 per million input tokens and $98.29 per million output tokens, and averages 86.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.70 / 1M
- Output
- $98.29 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 86.6
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning | Grok 4 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.69 | $19.70 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $98.36 | $98.29 | B |
| Context window | 200,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 87.5 | 86.6 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1485.0 | 1491.4 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning wins 8, Grok 4 Max wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning | Grok 4 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 90.1 | 87.8 | 2.3 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.9 | 82.0 | 1.9 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.3 | 74.3 | 2.0 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 90.2 | 93.4 | 3.2 | Grok 4 Max |
| MATH-500 | 93.3 | 94.6 | 1.3 | Grok 4 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 88.8 | 87.3 | 1.5 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| LiveCodeBench | 82.0 | 81.3 | 0.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| IFEval | 93.8 | 92.5 | 1.3 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 90.3 | 85.8 | 4.5 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 93.5 | 94.1 | 0.6 | Grok 4 Max |
| MMMU | 80.8 | 80.0 | 0.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1485.0 | 1491.4 | 6.4 | Grok 4 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning costs about $39.36 per million tokens and Grok 4 Max costs about $39.35. Grok 4 Max is roughly 0% cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning wins 8, Grok 4 Max wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 0.9 points (87.5 versus 86.6).
The price picture favours Grok 4 Max. The context picture favours Grok 4 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 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and Grok 4 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
Choose Grok 4 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning better than Grok 4 Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 0.9 points (87.5 versus 86.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning wins 8 benchmarks, Grok 4 Max wins 4.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning or Grok 4 Max?
Grok 4 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $39.35 per million tokens, versus $39.36 for Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning is proprietary; Grok 4 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and Grok 4 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.