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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6 Astra

Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra are both current text models, from Google and OpenAI. Gemini 4 Argon is 80% cheaper per 1M input tokens than GPT-6 Astra, $2 vs $10. On Arena Text, Gemini 4 Argon scores 1520 Elo and GPT-6 Astra 1476 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,050,000 and 1,048,576).

Higher Arena Text
Gemini 4 Argon1520 Elo against 1476 Elo
Lower price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 4 Argon$2 against $10
Longer context window
GPT-6 Astra1.05M tokens against 1.05M tokens
Newer release
Gemini 4 ArgonSep 30, 2026 against Sep 3, 2026

Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03

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Side by side

Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactGemini 4 ArgonGPT-6 Astra
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$2 (better)$10
Price per 1M output tokens$10 (better)$50
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1520 Elo (#1 of 51) (better)1476 Elo (#21 of 51)
Arena WebDev1679 Elo (#8 of 45)1773 Elo (#2 of 45) (better)
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)86% (#10 of 42)93.7% (#1 of 42) (better)
GPQA Diamond96.4% (#1 of 41) (better)95.8% (#2 of 41)
SimpleQA Verified76% (#1 of 38) (better)75.6% (#2 of 38)
Specs
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
Release dateSeptember 30, 2026September 3, 2026
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Max output1,000,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Inputtext, image, videotext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Open both in the interactive comparison

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

On Arena Text, Gemini 4 Argon ranks #1 and GPT-6 Astra #21 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.

Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 51

1,520 Elo · ahead of 100%

GPT-6 Astra:#21of 51

1,476 Elo · ahead of 58%

Arena WebDev

Gemini 4 Argon:#8of 45

1,679 Elo · ahead of 84%

GPT-6 Astra:#2of 45

1,773 Elo · ahead of 98%

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Gemini 4 Argon:#10of 42

86% · ahead of 76%

GPT-6 Astra:#1of 42

93.7% · ahead of 98%

GPQA Diamond

Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 41

96.4% · ahead of 100%

GPT-6 Astra:#2of 41

95.8% · ahead of 98%

SimpleQA Verified

Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 38

76% · ahead of 100%

GPT-6 Astra:#2of 38

75.6% · ahead of 97%

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Gemini 4 Argon:#29of 52

$2 · cheaper than 24%

GPT-6 Astra:#49of 52

$10 · cheaper than 0%

Price per 1M output tokens

Gemini 4 Argon:#34of 52

$10 · cheaper than 25%

GPT-6 Astra:#49of 52

$50 · cheaper than 0%

Context window

Gemini 4 Argon:#11of 64

1.05M tokens · longer than 67%

GPT-6 Astra:#1of 64

1.05M tokens · longer than 86%

Scores fromArena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 28, 2026

Gemini 4 Argon scores 1,520 at $4; GPT-6 Astra scores 1,476 at $20 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 43 text models, Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,475Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)Gemini 4 ArgonGPT-6 Astra
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 43 text models, Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,520
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,509
Muse WonderMeta$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,504
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,496
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,495
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,492
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,482
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,482
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,481
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,477
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,477
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,476
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,467
Grok 4.5xAI$31,465
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,462
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,458
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,456
Grok 4.6xAI$31,455
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,453
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,448
Step 5 PreviewStepFun$1.431,448
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,441
Grok 4.7xAI$31,441
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$1.051,432
Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic$0.201,425
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,388
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, GPT-6 Astra costs 5.0 times as much as Gemini 4 Argon, at each provider's listed rates.

What Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    GPT-6 Astra costs 5.0× as much

    Gemini 4 Argon
    $40
    GPT-6 Astra
    $200

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    GPT-6 Astra costs 5.2× as much

    Gemini 4 Argon
    $22.90
    GPT-6 Astra
    $119
Workload or rateGemini 4 ArgonGPT-6 Astra
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$40 (better)$200
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$22.90 (better)$119
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.10 (better)$1

Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.

Launch price $100, regular price $150

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Verdict

When to choose each

Gemini 4 Argon

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $2 and $10 vs $10 and $50 per 1M tokens
  • Higher Arena Text score, 1520 Elo vs 1476 Elo
  • Higher GPQA Diamond score, 96.4% vs 95.8%
  • Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 76% vs 75.6%
  • Longer responses, up to 1,000,000 vs 128,000 output tokens
  • Accepts video input
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.10 vs $1 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • Long-horizon coding and knowledge work once it reaches general API access

Watch out for

  • The $2 input and $10 output rates are introductory and end on November 30, 2026; from December 1 Google charges $4 and $20 per 1M tokens
  • Not on the Gemini API free tier, and explicit context caching is not supported; implicit caching takes 95% off repeated input
  • Answers longer than 64K tokens need background execution, and Google advises client timeouts of at least 15 minutes for hard prompts
Full Gemini 4 Argon profile

GPT-6 Astra

Where it leads

  • Higher Arena WebDev score, 1773 Elo vs 1679 Elo
  • Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 93.7% vs 86%

Best for

  • Frontier reasoning and agentic evaluations where deep-context retrieval accuracy is the binding constraint
  • Workloads that can be kept under the long-context threshold, where the effective rate stays at $10 / $50

Watch out for

  • Long-context billing is a cliff, not a taper: a request over the long-context threshold is rebilled in full at $20 per million input and $75 per million output, so a prompt that crosses it costs roughly double
  • GPT-6 Astra is the first publicly released model OpenAI classifies as crossing the Critical cybersecurity threshold under its own Preparedness Framework, which carries additional deployment safeguards
  • Vendor-reported benchmark figures come from OpenAI’s own launch material and its own harness; they are not independently reproduced here
Full GPT-6 Astra profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-6 Astra?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes

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FAQ

Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6 Astra FAQ

Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-6 Astra?

Gemini 4 Argon is 80% cheaper per 1M input tokens than GPT-6 Astra, $2 vs $10. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 4 Argon costs $40 and GPT-6 Astra $200 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-6 Astra?

Gemini 4 Argon charges $0.10 per 1M cached input tokens, 95% below its standard input rate, and GPT-6 Astra $1, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Gemini 4 Argon costs $22.90 and GPT-6 Astra $119.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-6 Astra?

Gemini 4 Argon leads on Arena Text, 1520 Elo to 1476 Elo; GPT-6 Astra leads on Arena WebDev, 1773 Elo to 1679 Elo; GPT-6 Astra leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 93.7% to 86%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

Which has the larger context window, Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-6 Astra?

Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,050,000 and 1,048,576). Gemini 4 Argon returns up to 1,000,000 tokens per response, GPT-6 Astra 128,000.

How do Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra differ in features?

Gemini 4 Argon takes text, image and video input; GPT-6 Astra takes text and image.

Further reading

More on Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra

Articles on Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Astra?

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