Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) by Google or GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) scores 21.2 points higher (30.1 vs 8.9) but costs 30× as much to run the benchmark ($447 vs $14.7; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.9 | 30.1 | +238.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 3.4× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.68 | $446.53 | +2941.8% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 30× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 57.75s | 5.85s | −89.9% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 89.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.02 / $0.10 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning): 238.2% more intelligence, 2941.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 89.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/gpt-5-6-terra-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/gpt-5-6-terra-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill