Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning vs o4 Pro: which model should you choose?

We compared Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning and o4 Pro on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; o4 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

Google DeepMind

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
Full Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning page
OpenAI

o4 Pro

o4 Pro is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.37 per million input tokens and $70.19 per million output tokens, and averages 87.3 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$19.37 / 1M
Output
$70.19 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
87.3
Open weights
No
Full o4 Pro page

Specification comparison

SpecGemini 3 Pro Reasoningo4 ProEdge
Input price / 1M$19.69$19.37B
Output price / 1M$98.36$70.19B
Context window200,0001,000,000B
Max output8,19216,384B
Average score87.587.3A
Arena Elo1485.01471.2A
Open weightsNoNoTie

Benchmark comparison

Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning wins 7, o4 Pro wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkGemini 3 Pro Reasoningo4 ProGapWinner
MMLU-Pro90.187.72.4Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
GPQA Diamond83.982.71.2Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
SWE-bench Verified76.378.52.2o4 Pro
HumanEval90.292.11.9o4 Pro
MATH-50093.389.83.5Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
AIME 202588.889.91.1o4 Pro
LiveCodeBench82.081.80.2Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
IFEval93.890.92.9Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
TruthfulQA90.387.92.4Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning
HellaSwag93.594.40.9o4 Pro
MMMU80.884.13.3o4 Pro
Arena Elo1485.01471.213.8Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning

Price analysis

On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning costs about $39.36 per million tokens and o4 Pro costs about $32.08. o4 Pro is roughly 19% 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.

o4 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 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 7, o4 Pro wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning leads o4 Pro by 0.2 points (87.5 versus 87.3).

The price picture favours o4 Pro. The context picture favours o4 Pro. 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 o4 Pro 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 o4 Pro if

  • Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
  • You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
  • You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.

FAQ

Is Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning better than o4 Pro?

On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning leads o4 Pro by 0.2 points (87.5 versus 87.3). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning wins 7 benchmarks, o4 Pro wins 5.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning or o4 Pro?

o4 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $32.08 per million tokens, versus $39.36 for Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning.

Which has the larger context window?

o4 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning has 200,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

Gemini 3 Pro Reasoning is proprietary; o4 Pro 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 o4 Pro for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.

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