Last verified 2025-11-26 (left) · 2025-09-22 (right)

Gemini 3 Pro Preview vs o4-mini — Pricing & Capability Comparison

Gemini 3 Pro Preview charges $2.00 per million input tokens and $12.00 per million output tokens. o4-mini comes in at $1.10 / $4.40. Context windows span 2M vs 200K tokens respectively.

TL;DR — Quick Comparison

✓o4-mini is cheaper overall: $5.50 per 1M tokens (in+out) vs $14.00 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview — saves $8.50 per 1M tokens
✓Input pricing: Gemini 3 Pro Preview $2.00/1M vs o4-mini $1.10/1M
✓Output pricing: Gemini 3 Pro Preview $12.00/1M vs o4-mini $4.40/1M
✓Context window: Gemini 3 Pro Preview offers more (2M vs 200K)
✓Use our calculator below to estimate costs for your specific usage pattern

Input price (per 1M)

Gemini 3 Pro Preview

$2.00

o4-mini

$1.10

o4-mini leads here

Output price (per 1M)

Gemini 3 Pro Preview

$12.00

o4-mini

$4.40

o4-mini leads here

Context window

Gemini 3 Pro Preview

2,000,000 tokens

o4-mini

200,000 tokens

Gemini 3 Pro Preview leads here

Cached input

Gemini 3 Pro Preview

$0.200

o4-mini

Not published

Gemini 3 Pro Preview leads here

Which one should you choose?

Skip the spreadsheet if you just need the practical takeaway. Use these rules when deciding between Gemini 3 Pro Preview and o4-mini.

Choose o4-mini if input tokens dominate your bill

o4-mini has the lower input rate, which usually matters most for chat, RAG, classification, and long-prompt workflows where prompt volume stays much larger than generated output.

Choose o4-mini if you generate long answers

o4-mini is cheaper on output tokens, so it tends to win for report generation, coding assistance, reasoning traces, and any workflow where completions are long.

Choose Gemini 3 Pro Preview if context size is the blocker

Gemini 3 Pro Preview offers the larger published context window, which is more important than small pricing differences when you need to fit large files, long chats, or multi-document prompts into one request.

Cost comparison for 10K-token workloads

Side-by-side pricing for identical workloads (10,000 total tokens per request) across different distributions.

Scenario	Gemini 3 Pro Preview	o4-mini	Gemini 3 Pro Preview cached
Balanced conversation 50% input · 50% output	$0.0700	$0.0275	$0.0610
Input-heavy workflow 80% input · 20% output	$0.0400	$0.0176	$0.0256
Generation heavy 30% input · 70% output	$0.0900	$0.0341	$0.0846
Cached system prompt 90% cached input · 10% fresh output	$0.0300	$0.0143	$0.0138

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper: Gemini 3 Pro Preview or o4-mini?

o4-mini is cheaper for input tokens at $1.10 per 1M tokens compared to $2.00. For output, o4-mini costs $4.40 per 1M tokens versus $12.00 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview pricing: $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $12.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 2,000,000 tokens.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for o4-mini?

o4-mini pricing: $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 200,000 tokens.

How much does it cost per 1K tokens?

Per 1K tokens: Gemini 3 Pro Preview costs $0.0020 input / $0.0120 output. o4-mini costs $0.0011 input / $0.0044 output. This is useful for calculating small-scale usage costs.

Which model supports a larger context window?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview offers 2,000,000 tokens (2M) versus 200K for o4-mini.

What is the estimated monthly cost for typical usage?

For a typical workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens per month: Gemini 3 Pro Preview would cost approximately $44.00, while o4-mini would cost $19.80. o4-mini is more economical for this usage pattern.

Do these models support prompt caching?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview supports prompt caching at $0.200 per 1M cached tokens, reducing costs for repeated context by up to 90%. o4-mini does not publish cached pricing.

Which model is best for my use case?

Choose o4-mini for cost-sensitive applications with high input volume. Choose Gemini 3 Pro Preview if you need 2M context for long documents or conversations. Consider prompt caching if you have repeated context. Use our token calculator to model your specific usage pattern.