Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs Grok 4.6 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) by Google or Grok 4.6 (Low) by SpaceXAI? 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
Grok 4.6 (Low) scores 26.2 points higher (35.1 vs 8.9) but costs 42× as much to run the benchmark ($614 vs $14.7; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Low) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.9 | 35.1 | +294.4% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 3.9× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.68 | $613.92 | +4082.0% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 42× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 57.75s | 13.36s | −76.9% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 76.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.02 / $0.10 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Low) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning): 294.4% more intelligence, 4082.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 76.9% 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.
- Grok 4.6 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)Grok 4.6 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/grok-4-6-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/grok-4-6-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill