Compare / Gemma 3 27B vs Grok 4.6

Gemma 3 27B vs Grok 4.6

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 19 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Gemma 3 27B
Google · profile
Grok 4.6
xAI · profile
Results compared
19
Shared sources
3

Gemma 3 27B or Grok 4.6? The short answer

  • Gemma 3 27B is cheaper: $0.14 against $3.00 per million tokens, 22 times less.
  • Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 44.3 against 4.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Grok 4.6 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

At a glance

Gemma 3 27BGrok 4.6
Price per million tokens$0.12 in · $0.20 out$2.00 in · $6.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.14$3.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.10 (DeepInfra, FP8)$3.00 (xAI)
Intelligence Index4.944.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens500,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inthe USthe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseGemma 3 27BGrok 4.6
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 142 of 161 10 of 161
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 16 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 188 of 195 13 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 111 of 187 44 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 96 of 153 53 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricGemma 3 27BGrok 4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,3801,449
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,3771,447
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3481,445
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,3371,490
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,3431,451
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,3651,453
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,3541,446
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 10.176.8
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 4.9044.3
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 42.8%94.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 4.4%44.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 7.3%81.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedSciCode% of problems 23.3%56.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 4.5%88.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks 0.0%21.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ-bench banking% of tasks 0.8%50.7%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 8.0%25.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.290.36
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 45.063.3

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Gemma 3 27B better than Grok 4.6?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Grok 4.6 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Grok 4.6?

Gemma 3 27B costs $0.14 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $3.00 for Grok 4.6.

Run Gemma 3 27B and Grok 4.6 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.