Gemini 3 Pro Vision vs o3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Pro Vision and o3 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 3 Pro Vision 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
o3 Max
o3 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.82 per million input tokens and $90.55 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.82 / 1M
- Output
- $90.55 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Pro Vision | o3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.59 | $17.82 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $68.83 | $90.55 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 128,000 | 128,000 | Tie |
| Average score | 85.5 | 84.8 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1458.1 | 1465.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Pro Vision wins 7, o3 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 | o3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 84.9 | 2.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.6 | 82.7 | 2.1 | o3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.5 | 71.8 | 4.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| HumanEval | 91.6 | 89.8 | 1.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| MATH-500 | 88.4 | 87.0 | 1.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 87.3 | 86.2 | 1.1 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.2 | 76.4 | 2.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| IFEval | 90.4 | 92.5 | 2.1 | o3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 84.5 | 87.3 | 2.8 | o3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 93.4 | 2.3 | o3 Max |
| MMMU | 83.6 | 80.8 | 2.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1458.1 | 1465.2 | 7.1 | o3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Pro Vision costs about $30.40 per million tokens and o3 Max costs about $36.00. Gemini 3 Pro Vision is roughly 16% cheaper than o3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 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, o3 Max wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Vision leads o3 Max by 0.7 points (85.5 versus 84.8).
The price picture favours Gemini 3 Pro Vision. The context picture favours o3 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 check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Gemini 3 Pro Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose o3 Max if
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Pro Vision better than o3 Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Vision leads o3 Max by 0.7 points (85.5 versus 84.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Pro Vision wins 7 benchmarks, o3 Max wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Vision or o3 Max?
Gemini 3 Pro Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $30.40 per million tokens, versus $36.00 for o3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Pro Vision has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Pro Vision is proprietary; o3 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 check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.