Compare / Google vs OpenAI

AI labs compared · October 2026

Google vs OpenAI: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 43 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

16 models on sale with our resultsGoogle Best: Gemini 3.8 Flash · newest: Gemini 3.8 Flash
27 models on sale with our resultsOpenAI Best: GPT-6.1 Sol · newest: GPT-6.1 Sol
Google wins 3OpenAI wins 7

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 10 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Google or OpenAI? The short answer

OpenAI is ahead: its best models beat Google's in 7 of the 10 kinds of work both are measured on; Google leads in 3.

  • Pick Google for writing, sticking to the facts and speed under pressure.
  • Pick OpenAI for product listings, decks from an analysis, user surveys, marketing planning, agents and tool use, professional work and reasoning and knowledge.
  • On our overall leaderboard, GPT-6.1 Sol is #2 (81 of 100) and Gemini 3.8 Flash is #8 (61).
  • Prices start at $0.062 per million tokens for Google (Gemma 3 4B) and $0.060 for OpenAI (gpt-oss-20b).

Head to head

61Gemini 3.8 Flash
Best Spring Prompt overall score
81GPT-6.1 Sol
40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash
Best Intelligence Index
52.7GPT-6 Astra
$3.00Gemini 3.8 Flash
Flagship price, per million tokens
$4.00GPT-6.1 Sol
$0.062Gemma 3 4B
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.060gpt-oss-20b
16
Models on sale with our results
27

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live 8 of 20Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 1 of 20GPT-6 Astra
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 12 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash 1 of 19GPT-6 Astra
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 5 of 8Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 1 of 8GPT-6.1 Sol
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 7 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash 1 of 19GPT-6 Astra
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 29 of 164Gemini 3.7 Flash 3 of 164GPT-6.1 Sol
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 11 of 51Gemini 3.8 Flash 1 of 51GPT-5.6 Sol
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 12 of 198Gemini 3.8 Flash 3 of 198GPT-6 Astra
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 2 of 188Gemini 3.8 Flash 14 of 188GPT-5.5
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 1 of 152Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 18 of 152GPT-6.1 Sol
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 2 of 22Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 10 of 22GPT-6 Sol

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

GoogleOpenAI

0204060 $0.01$0.1$1$10$100 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Gemini 3.8 FlashGPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 AstraGPT-6 SolGPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Terra

On our overall leaderboard

The 7 of their models we rank overall: one score out of 100 across everything we publish (how the score works). Only models with enough of our own results are ranked.

  1. #2GPT-6.1 Sol81
  2. #3GPT-6 Astra79
  3. #4GPT-6 Sol69
  4. #8Gemini 3.8 Flash61
  5. #10Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview50
  6. #15GPT-6 Luna40
  7. #19Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite27

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

MeasureGoogleOpenAI
Agents and tool use
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, retail% of tasks, higher is better 76.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 4 of 681.6%GPT-5.2 · 2 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, airline% of tasks, higher is better 82.5%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 3 of 683.0%GPT-5.2 · 2 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, telecom% of tasks, higher is better 91.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 3 of 689.7%GPT-5.2 · 4 of 6
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 56.2%Gemini 2.5 Flash · 8 of 3863.1%o3 · 5 of 38
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better 62.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash · 7 of 3365.9%GPT-5.5 · 5 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 19.7%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 23 of 10559.6%GPT-6 Astra · 2 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 87.6%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 8 of 11589.9%GPT-6 Astra · 2 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 45.8%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 10 of 11344.3%GPT-5.6 Sol · 12 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better $5,396Gemini 3.5 Flash · 22 of 56$15,515GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 56
Decks from an analysis
DeckBench · Deck ratingrating, higher is better 894Gemini 3.8 Flash · 12 of 191,477GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 19
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 51.4Gemini 3.8 Flash · 7 of 1956.6GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 44.6%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 8 of 2075.0%GPT-6.1 Sol · 1 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 16.1%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 8 of 2069.6%GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 20
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better 67.8%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 4 of 3764.7%GPT-6 Astra · 7 of 37
GDP.pdf · Professional document tasks% of rubric, higher is better 23.8%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 11 of 3130.7%GPT-5.6 Sol · 1 of 31
Remote Labor Index · Projects done to client standard% of projects, higher is better 5.0%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 6 of 1220.8%GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 12
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash · 21 of 19852.7GPT-6 Astra · 4 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 47.9%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 19754.7%GPT-6 Astra · 6 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 95.3%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 2 of 18796.3%GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 187
Speed under pressure
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Lightning 10+1ladder Elo, higher is better 892Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite · 1 of 14571GPT-5.4 mini · 4 of 14
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 1,068Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1 of 20445GPT-6 Sol · 10 of 20
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 3.3%Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite · 2 of 793.1%GPT-5.4 nano · 1 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,477Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 1131,486GPT-5.5 · 5 of 113
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 73.5%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 3 of 7375.6%GPT-6 Astra · 1 of 73
User surveys
SurveyBench · Analysis ratingrating, higher is better 810Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 5 of 81,650GPT-6.1 Sol · 1 of 8
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,495Gemini 3.8 Flash · 6 of 1661,484GPT-5.6 Sol · 14 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 78.6Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1 of 13869.7GPT-5.5 · 11 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Google or OpenAI better?

OpenAI is ahead: its best models beat Google's in 7 of the 10 kinds of work both are measured on; Google leads in 3.

What is Google's best model?

Gemini 3.8 Flash: #8 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 40.9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is OpenAI's best model?

GPT-6.1 Sol: #2 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 51.8 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Google or OpenAI?

OpenAI: its best model there, GPT-6.1 Sol, ranks 3 of 164 models on sale, against 29 for Google's Gemini 3.7 Flash.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Google or OpenAI?

OpenAI: its best model there, GPT-6 Astra, ranks 3 of 198 models on sale, against 12 for Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash.

Which is better for writing, Google or OpenAI?

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.8 Flash, ranks 2 of 188 models on sale, against 14 for OpenAI's GPT-5.5.

Which is cheaper, Google or OpenAI?

OpenAI's cheapest model with results, gpt-oss-20b, costs $0.060 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.062 for Gemma 3 4B from Google.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Google, OpenAI and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard