Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) by Google or GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) scores 11.9 points higher (20.8 vs 8.9) but costs 17× as much to run the benchmark ($256 vs $14.7; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) 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 (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.9 | 20.8 | +133.7% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 2.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.68 | $255.77 | +1642.3% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 17× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.62s | 5.09s | −90.8% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 90.8% 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 (Non-reasoning) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning): 133.7% more intelligence, 1642.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.8% 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 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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