Gemini 3 Pro Vision vs GPT-4.1 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Pro Vision and GPT-4.1 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 3 Pro Vision
Gemini 3 Pro Vision is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.59 per million input tokens and $68.83 per million output tokens, and averages 85.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.59 / 1M
- Output
- $68.83 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 85.5
- Open weights
- No
GPT-4.1 Max
GPT-4.1 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.34 per million input tokens and $66.38 per million output tokens, and averages 84.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.34 / 1M
- Output
- $66.38 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 84.7
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Pro Vision | GPT-4.1 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.59 | $17.34 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $68.83 | $66.38 | B |
| Context window | 200,000 | 400,000 | B |
| Max output | 128,000 | 8,192 | A |
| Average score | 85.5 | 84.7 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1458.1 | 1467.6 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Pro Vision wins 7, GPT-4.1 Max wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Pro Vision | GPT-4.1 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 87.4 | 0.1 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.6 | 81.2 | 0.6 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.5 | 74.8 | 1.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| HumanEval | 91.6 | 88.8 | 2.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| MATH-500 | 88.4 | 87.3 | 1.1 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 87.3 | 84.9 | 2.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.2 | 78.5 | 0.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| IFEval | 90.4 | 92.1 | 1.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 84.5 | 85.4 | 0.9 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 90.7 | 0.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| MMMU | 83.6 | 80.5 | 3.1 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1458.1 | 1467.6 | 9.5 | GPT-4.1 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Pro Vision costs about $30.40 per million tokens and GPT-4.1 Max costs about $29.60. GPT-4.1 Max is roughly 3% cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro Vision. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
GPT-4.1 Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Gemini 3 Pro Vision. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Vision wins 7, GPT-4.1 Max wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Vision leads GPT-4.1 Max by 0.8 points (85.5 versus 84.7).
The price picture favours GPT-4.1 Max. The context picture favours GPT-4.1 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 Vision for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 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 Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
Choose GPT-4.1 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Pro Vision better than GPT-4.1 Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Vision leads GPT-4.1 Max by 0.8 points (85.5 versus 84.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Vision wins 7 benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Max wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Vision or GPT-4.1 Max?
GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.60 per million tokens, versus $30.40 for Gemini 3 Pro Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Pro Vision has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Pro Vision is proprietary; GPT-4.1 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Pro Vision for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.