Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | GPT-4o (Nov '24) | Gemini 2.5 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $2.5 | $1.25 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $10 | $10 |
Verdict. Gemini 2.5 Pro takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the mid-tier bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Gemini 2.5 Pro is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Gemini 2.5 Pro makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. GPT-4o (Nov '24) is strongest on Intelligence Index (11.1). Gemini 2.5 Pro leads on Coding Index (33.3), Intelligence Index (25.9).
Speed. Throughput is comparable — 131 tok/s vs 133 tok/s — so generation speed shouldn't drive your choice here. Look at the per-benchmark wins instead.
Provider. OpenAI and Google sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: OpenAI tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Google often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): GPT-4o (Nov '24) costs $225.00 ($2700/year); Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $187.50 ($2250/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): GPT-4o (Nov '24) ≈ $32.50/run, Gemini 2.5 Pro ≈ $26.25/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): GPT-4o (Nov '24) ≈ $1500/run, Gemini 2.5 Pro ≈ $1250/run. Gemini 2.5 Pro becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Gemini 2.5 Pro is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $3.44/M tokens vs $4.38/M for GPT-4o (Nov '24).
Gemini 2.5 Pro wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for GPT-4o (Nov '24). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Gemini 2.5 Pro generates tokens faster at 133 tok/s vs 131 tok/s. GPT-4o (Nov '24) also has lower time-to-first-token (1.01s vs 20.46s).
Choose based on your priorities: Gemini 2.5 Pro for lower cost, Gemini 2.5 Pro for stronger benchmark performance, and Gemini 2.5 Pro for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.