Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4
For most developer and business use cases, Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the better pick: it wins 4 of 12 benchmarks (tool calling, structured output, creative problem solving, agentic planning) and costs 0.2× per-token versus Grok 4. Grok 4 outperforms Gemini only on safety calibration (2 vs 1) and may be chosen where slightly stronger refusal behavior matters despite a much higher price.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$0.500/MTok
Output
$3.00/MTok
modelpicker.net
xai
Grok 4
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$3.00/MTok
Output
$15.00/MTok
modelpicker.net
Benchmark Analysis
Our 12-test comparison (scores on a 1–5 scale) shows: Gemini 3 Flash Preview wins 4 tests — structured_output 5 vs Grok 4's 4 (Gemini tied for 1st of 54, tied with 24 others), tool_calling 5 vs 4 (Gemini tied for 1st of 54, tied with 16 others), creative_problem_solving 5 vs 3 (Gemini rank 1 of 54 tied with 7 others), and agentic_planning 5 vs 3 (Gemini tied for 1st of 54). Grok 4 wins safety_calibration 2 vs Gemini’s 1 (Grok rank 12 of 55 vs Gemini rank 32 of 55), indicating Grok is a bit more likely to refuse harmful requests correctly in our tests. The remaining seven tests are ties: strategic_analysis (5/5, both tied for 1st), constrained_rewriting (4/4, both rank 6 of 53), faithfulness (5/5, both tied for 1st), classification (4/4, both tied for 1st), long_context (5/5, both tied for 1st of 55), persona_consistency (5/5, both tied for 1st), and multilingual (5/5, both tied for 1st). Beyond our internal suite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview posts external results: 75.4% on SWE-bench Verified (Epoch AI) — rank 3 of 12 — and 92.8% on AIME 2025 (Epoch AI) — rank 5 of 23; Grok has no external benchmark scores in the payload. Practically: Gemini’s higher scores and top ranks in tool calling and structured output mean more reliable JSON/schema outputs and more accurate function selection/arguments in agentic workflows; its creative_problem_solving and agentic_planning wins point to stronger non-obvious idea generation and goal decomposition. Grok’s single win on safety calibration means it is modestly better at refusal behavior in our tests, but not stronger on core coding/tool tasks.
Pricing Analysis
Per the payload, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 input / $3.00 output per mTok; Grok 4 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per mTok (priceRatio = 0.2). Using a simple 50/50 input/output token split as an example: 1M tokens/month -> Gemini ≈ $1,750; Grok ≈ $9,000. At 10M tokens -> Gemini ≈ $17,500; Grok ≈ $90,000. At 100M tokens -> Gemini ≈ $175,000; Grok ≈ $900,000. If your app is high-volume (millions of tokens/month), Gemini’s lower per-token rates materially reduce monthly bill; teams with strict safety requirements or low-volume, high-value queries should weigh Grok’s higher cost against its modest safety advantage (safety_calibration 2 vs 1).
Real-World Cost Comparison
Bottom Line
Choose Gemini 3 Flash Preview if you need robust tool calling, strict structured outputs, long-context reasoning, and a dramatically lower per-token price (best for coding assistants, agentic workflows, high-volume APIs, or budget-conscious teams). Choose Grok 4 if safety calibration is a primary requirement and you can tolerate ~5× higher per-token costs for that modest safety edge (suitable for low-volume deployments or where refusal correctness is prioritized).
How We Test
We test every model against our 12-benchmark suite covering tool calling, agentic planning, creative problem solving, safety calibration, and more. Each test is scored 1–5 by an LLM judge. Read our full methodology.