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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Pro Preview

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. xAI

    Grok 4.6

    Released Aug 12, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context500K
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.6

  2. Google

    Gemini 3 Pro Preview

    Released Nov 18, 2025

    67/100
    • ECI153.0
    • Price$2.00 / $12.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3 Pro Preview

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Gemini 3 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.6Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview $4.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3 Pro PreviewGemini 3 Pro Preview 1,048,576 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3 Pro PreviewGrok 4.6: Text, Images · Gemini 3 Pro Preview: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.6Gemini 3 Pro Preview
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8682
Price25%2719
Inputs & features15%70100
Context window10%4861
Overall100%65/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Grok 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Pro Preview specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.6xAIGemini 3 Pro PreviewGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)153.0
ECI rank#19 of 148 (best)#39 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions94.0% (best)92.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics66.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.2% (best)91.4%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—72.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions49.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$2.00
Output$6.00 (best)$12.00
Cached input$0.50—
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$4.50
Long-context rateOver 200K: $4.00 / $12.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window500,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output500,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoYes
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhighYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.6—
API providers29 (best)3
ReleasedAug 12, 2026Nov 18, 2025
Knowledge cutoffFeb 1, 2026Jan 2025
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.

  • Grok 4.6$32.00
  • Gemini 3 Pro Preview$44.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.6 or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Gemini 3 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Grok 4.6 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Gemini 3 Pro Preview costs $2.00 input / $12.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Grok 4.6 versus $4.50 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148) and Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0 (#39 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 150.6–155.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Gemini 3 Pro Preview 92.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.6 99.2%, Gemini 3 Pro Preview 91.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.6 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?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Gemini 3 Pro Preview up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Gemini 3 Pro Preview accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 3 Pro Preview handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.6 and Gemini 3 Pro Preview are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Gemini 3 Pro Preview came out Nov 18, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026, Gemini 3 Pro Preview Jan 2025.

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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