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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs GPT-5 Nano

Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-5 Nano 70, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI141.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.38
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-5 Nano

    Released Aug 7, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5 Nano

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT for raw capability, GPT-5 Nano on price and GPT-5 Nano for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemma 4 26B A4B ITCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 141.9 · GPT-5 Nano 139.4
  • Lowest priceGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano $0.138 · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT $0.17 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsGemma 4 26B A4B IT: Text, Images · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingGemma 4 26B A4B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 4 26B A4B ITGPT-5 Nano
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6865
Price25%8691
Inputs & features15%7070
Context window10%3744
Overall100%70/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs GPT-5 Nano specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogleGPT-5 NanoOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.9 (best)139.4
ECI rank#93 of 148 (best)#102 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions73.2% (best)69.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—20.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics82.2% (best)81.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—11.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.05 (best)
Output$0.38 (best)$0.40
Cached input—$0.005
Blended (3:1)$0.17$0.138 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 23 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens400,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDgemma-4-26b-a4b-itgpt-5-nano
API providers26 (best)21
ReleasedApr 2, 2026Aug 7, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—May 30, 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemma 4 26B A4B IT$1.76
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or GPT-5 Nano?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT for raw capability, GPT-5 Nano on price and GPT-5 Nano for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or GPT-5 Nano?

GPT-5 Nano is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Gemma 4 26B A4B IT costs $0.10 input / $0.38 output per million tokens (median across 23 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.138 per million tokens for GPT-5 Nano versus $0.17 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 141.9 (#93 of 148) and GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.4–143.4 vs 134.9–141.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 73.2%, GPT-5 Nano 69.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 82.2%, GPT-5 Nano 81.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and GPT-5 Nano yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5 Nano has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT. Maximum output per response: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT up to 32,768, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts text and images; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5 Nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. GPT-5 Nano came out Aug 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5 Nano May 30, 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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