Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Llama 4 Maverick
Both models share the same 1,048,576-token context window, but that's where the similarity ends. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is Google's frontier reasoning model with mandatory reasoning tokens and five input modalities; Llama 4 Maverick is a mixture-of-experts model (17B active params, 128 experts) built for cheap throughput. The gap in Design Arena scores and Artificial Analysis indices is large enough that this comparison is really about matching model to budget and task, not picking a favorite.
Spec vs spec
| Spec | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Llama 4 Maverick |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1.0M | 1.0M |
| Max output | 66K | 16K |
| Input modalities | audio, file, image, text, video | text, image |
| Output modalities | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Aug 31, 2024 |
| Released | Feb 19, 2026 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Reasoning | always on | — |
Pricing
Per 1M tokens. Provider price plus the flat 3% fee — the sum is what you pay.
google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Input · 1M tokens
$2.00 + 3%$2.06
Output · 1M tokens
$12.00 + 3%$12.36
Cache read · 1M tokens
$0.200 + 3%$0.206
Cache write · 1M tokens
$0.375 + 3%$0.386
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
meta-llama/llama-4-maverick
Input · 1M tokens
$0.150 + 3%$0.154
Output · 1M tokens
$0.600 + 3%$0.618
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
One workload, priced on both
10M input + 2M output tokens at each model's price, flat 3% fee included.
google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview
$45.32
$44.00 provider + 3%
meta-llama/llama-4-maverickCheaper
$2.78
$2.70 provider + 3%
Benchmarks
Design Arena categories where both models have results. Higher Elo and lower rank win.
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Llama 4 Maverick | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Elo | Rank | Elo | Rank |
| 3D | 1303 | #17 | 976 | #91 |
| Code | 1290 | #18 | 929 | #102 |
| Data viz | 1270 | #20 | 926 | #100 |
| Game dev | 1264 | #26 | 903 | #103 |
| UI components | 1322 | #8 | 955 | #94 |
| Websites | 1294 | #15 | 914 | #105 |
Head-to-head preference voting. How we filter and rank
Pricing math
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $2.00/M input and $12.00/M output from Google; on OpenKey that's $2.00 × 1.03 = $2.06/M input and $12.00 × 1.03 = $12.36/M output. Llama 4 Maverick is $0.15/M input and $0.60/M output from the provider, or $0.1545/M and $0.618/M on OpenKey after the flat 3% fee.
For a workload of 10M input tokens + 2M output tokens: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview runs $44.00 total; Llama 4 Maverick runs $2.70 total. That's a 13.33x gap on input pricing alone. If you're processing large batches where quality differences don't matter much, Maverick's cost advantage compounds fast. If a single bad output costs more than the token savings, Gemini is the safer spend.
Coding and agentic performance
Artificial Analysis puts Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's coding index at 68.8 and agentic index at 21.4, against Maverick's 16.3 and 1.3. That's not a close race. In Design Arena's agent benchmarks, Gemini ranks in the top 10 across most categories — rank 5 on agenticslides(html), rank 6 on godotgamedev and htmlslides — while Maverick doesn't appear in the agents arena at all, only in the base models arena where it ranks 91-105 across categories (codecategories rank 102, website rank 105, gamedev rank 103). If your workload involves multi-step tool use or writing production code, Gemini is the only one of the two built for it.
Context and modality differences
Context length is a wash: both hit 1,048,576 tokens, so context_ratio is 1.0 — this isn't a differentiator. Max output tokens is not: Gemini supports 65,536 completion tokens versus Maverick's 16,384, a real gap if you need long single-shot generations like full reports or large code files.
Modality is the bigger split. Gemini accepts text, image, file, audio, and video input; Maverick only takes text and image. If your pipeline needs to process audio transcripts or video frames directly, Maverick is disqualified outright regardless of price.
When to pick each
Pick Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview when the task is agentic coding, multi-modal input beyond images, or anything where the Design Arena and Artificial Analysis gaps (46.5 vs 14.3 intelligence index) translate to fewer retries and less human review. Pick Llama 4 Maverick when you're running high volume, low-stakes text/image tasks — classification, extraction, drafting — where the 13.33x price difference matters more than a few extra points of benchmark performance. Both models are callable through OpenKey with one key, and OpenKey adds a flat 3% fee on top of provider list price for both.
Which model for which job
| Use case | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Agentic coding / multi-step tool use | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Agentic index of 21.4 vs Maverick's 1.3, plus top-10 Design Arena agent ranks |
| High-volume text classification or extraction | Llama 4 Maverick | $2.70 vs $44.00 for a 10M-in/2M-out workload |
| Audio or video input processing | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Maverick only accepts text and image, no audio/video modality |
| Long single-response generation | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | 65,536 max completion tokens vs Maverick's 16,384 |
| Budget-constrained prototyping | Llama 4 Maverick | 13.33x cheaper input pricing lets you iterate more for the same spend |
| Frontend/UI code generation | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Coding index of 68.8 vs 16.3, and rank 2 on Design Arena's SVG category |
Questions
- How much more expensive is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview than Llama 4 Maverick?
- On input tokens it's 13.33x more ($2.06/M vs $0.1545/M on OpenKey). For a 10M-input/2M-output workload, Gemini costs $44.00 total versus $2.70 for Maverick — roughly 16x more expensive end to end.
- Do both models support the same context length?
- Yes. Both Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Llama 4 Maverick support a 1,048,576-token context window, giving a context ratio of exactly 1.0. The difference is in max output: 65,536 tokens for Gemini vs 16,384 for Maverick.
- Which model is better for coding tasks?
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, by a large margin. Its Artificial Analysis coding index is 68.8 versus Maverick's 16.3, and it ranks in the top 20 across most Design Arena model categories (rank 2 on SVG, rank 4 on ASCII art) while Maverick ranks 91-105 in the same categories.
- Can I use both models through the same API key?
- Yes — both are available on OpenKey with a single API key, with pricing set at provider list price plus a flat 3% fee. That means $2.06/M input for Gemini and $0.1545/M input for Maverick, no separate accounts needed.