Gemma 4 31B vs GPT-5.4

Test-by-test summary (our 12-test suite and provided ranks):

• Tool calling: Gemma 4 31B scores 5 vs GPT-5.4's 4. Gemma is tied for 1st on tool calling (tied with 16 others), while GPT-5.4 ranks 18 of 54 — this indicates Gemma chooses functions and arguments more reliably in our tests.
• Classification: Gemma 4 vs GPT-5.4 3. Gemma ranks tied for 1st in classification; GPT-5.4 ranks 31 of 53 — for routing and categorical accuracy Gemma is stronger in our benchmarks.
• Long context: GPT-5.4 wins 5 vs Gemma 4. GPT-5.4 is tied for 1st on long context (top tier) while Gemma sits much lower (rank 38 of 55), reflecting GPT-5.4’s superior retrieval and coherence over 30K+ token scenarios and its 1M+ context window.
• Safety calibration: GPT-5.4 5 vs Gemma 4 2. GPT-5.4 is tied for 1st on safety calibration; Gemma ranks 12 of 55. In practice GPT-5.4 refused harmful requests more reliably in our tests while Gemma was more permissive.
• Structured output: both score 5 and tie for 1st — both models adhere to JSON/schema constraints at top-tier levels.
• Strategic analysis, constrained rewriting, creative problem solving, faithfulness, persona consistency, agentic planning, multilingual: these are ties in our suite (scores mostly 4–5), showing parity on many higher-level reasoning and style tasks.
• External benchmarks: GPT-5.4 scores 76.9% on SWE-bench Verified and ranks 2 of 12, and 95.3% on AIME 2025 (Epoch AI). Gemma 4 31B has no external SWE/AIME scores in the payload. These external results indicate GPT-5.4’s strength on real GitHub issue resolution and high-level math on third-party tests (attributed to Epoch AI). Overall, Gemma shines for tool calling, classification, and structured outputs at far lower cost; GPT-5.4 wins where long-context handling and safety calibration matter and posts strong third-party coding/math numbers.

Per the payload, Gemma 4 31B charges $0.13 per input mTok and $0.38 per output mTok; GPT-5.4 charges $2.50 input and $15.00 output per mTok. Assuming a 50/50 split of input vs output tokens, monthly costs are: 1M tokens — Gemma ≈ $255 vs GPT-5.4 ≈ $8,750; 10M tokens — Gemma ≈ $2,550 vs GPT-5.4 ≈ $87,500; 100M tokens — Gemma ≈ $25,500 vs GPT-5.4 ≈ $875,000. The cost gap matters for any heavy API usage: startups building at scale, embedded assistants, or high-volume generation pipelines will save orders of magnitude with Gemma; organizations with cushioned budgets that require GPT-5.4’s 1M+ context or its safety profile may accept the higher spend.

Choose Gemma 4 31B if: you need a multimodal model with strong tool-calling (5 vs 4), top structured-output and classification performance, and dramatically lower cost ($0.13/$0.38 per mTok). Ideal for high-volume APIs, production assistants, and workflows that call functions or return strict JSON.
Choose GPT-5.4 if: you require ultra long-context (1M+ tokens), the highest safety calibration (5 vs Gemma’s 2), or third-party coding/math performance (SWE-bench 76.9%, AIME 95.3% per Epoch AI) and you can absorb much higher token costs ($2.50/$15 per mTok).