Gemma 4 26B A4B vs GPT-4.1 Nano

Across our 12-test suite Gemma 4 26B A4B wins 7 tests, GPT‑4.1 Nano wins 2, and 3 tests tie. Test-by-test (score A vs B): strategic analysis 5 vs 2 (Gemma wins; Gemma is tied for 1st in strategic analysis), creative problem solving 4 vs 2 (Gemma, ranks 9 of 54), tool calling 5 vs 4 (Gemma, tied for 1st with 16 others; GPT‑4.1 Nano ranks 18 of 54), classification 4 vs 3 (Gemma, tied for 1st of 53), long context 5 vs 4 (Gemma, tied for 1st of 55; practical for 30K+ retrieval), multilingual 5 vs 4 (Gemma, tied for 1st of 55), persona consistency 5 vs 4 (Gemma, tied for 1st of 53). GPT‑4.1 Nano wins constrained rewriting 4 vs 3 (GPT ranks 6 of 53) and safety calibration 2 vs 1 (GPT ranks 12 of 55; Gemma ranks 32 of 55). Three tests tie: structured output 5 vs 5 (both tied for 1st), faithfulness 5 vs 5 (both tied for 1st), and agentic planning 4 vs 4 (tie). Additional external math signals: GPT‑4.1 Nano posts 70% on MATH Level 5 and 28.9% on AIME 2025 (Epoch AI), with ranks 11/14 and 20/23 respectively; Gemma has no external math scores in the payload. In practical terms this means: use Gemma where you need robust tool selection/sequencing, long‑context accuracy, multilingual parity, and high classification fidelity; pick GPT‑4.1 Nano when safety refusals and constrained rewriting (hard character limits) are prioritized or when you need the massive 1,047,576 token context window the payload lists.

Per the payload, Gemma 4 26B A4B charges $0.08 per 1K input tokens and $0.35 per 1K output tokens? (payload units: per m-tok). GPT‑4.1 Nano charges $0.10 input and $0.40 output per m‑tok. If you assume equal split between input and output tokens, Gemma costs $0.215 per million tokens versus GPT‑4.1 Nano at $0.25 per million tokens — a $0.035 savings per million tokens. That scales to roughly $0.35 saved at 10M tokens/month and $3.50 saved at 100M tokens/month. If your workload is heavily output‑weighted (more generated tokens than prompts) the absolute dollar gap grows but remains modest at these per‑token rates. Cost matters most for extremely high‑volume deployments or very tight margins; for many teams the functional differences (tool calling, long context, safety) will outweigh the small per‑token savings.

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you need: superior tool calling (5 vs 4), top long‑context retrieval (5 vs 4), best multilingual and classification scores (5 vs 4/3), and lower per‑token cost ($0.08/$0.35 vs $0.10/$0.40). Ideal for multi‑tool agents, multi‑language products, and high‑accuracy long‑document workflows. Choose GPT‑4.1 Nano if you need: better safety calibration (2 vs 1), stronger constrained rewriting (4 vs 3), or a far larger context window (1,047,576 vs 262,144 tokens) and you accept slightly higher per‑token costs. Ideal for strict content safety needs, tight character packing, or workloads requiring enormous single‑request contexts.