ModelRefs / GPT-4o vs Gemma 3 27B
GPT-4o vs Gemma 3 27B
GPT-4o vs Gemma 3 27B: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.
Overview
Gemma 3 27B: Gemma 3 27B is the largest model in Google's third-generation open Gemma family, accepting text and images across a 128,000-token input context, with output drawn from the same budget. Images are normalised to 896x896 and encoded as 256 tokens each. Google cites support for more than 140 languages and an August 2024 knowledge cutoff. The weights are published under Google's Gemma Terms of Use rather than a standard open-source licence.
GPT-4o: GPT-4o is OpenAI's May 2024 multimodal flagship, accepting text and image input across a 128,000-token context window with a 16,384-token maximum output and an October 2023 knowledge cutoff. OpenAI describes it as its most capable model outside the o-series reasoning line, and serves it through dated snapshots with gpt-4o-2024-08-06 as the default. The family is now deprecated on two schedules: gpt-4o-2024-08-06 and gpt-4o-2024-11-20 shut down on 14 January 2027 with gpt-6-luna as the replacement, and the original gpt-4o-2024-05-13 snapshot on 23 October 2026 with gpt-5.6-sol.
Context window: Gemma 3 27B accepts up to 128,000 tokens, GPT-4o up to 128,000. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.
Gemma 3 27B vs GPT-4o at a glance
| Attribute | Gemma 3 27B | GPT-4o |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Released | 2025-02-01 | 2024-05-13 |
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Input price | $0.1/M tokens | $2.5/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.3/M tokens | $10/M tokens |
| Licence | Gemma-Terms | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | Yes, open weights | No, hosted only |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision, audio |
Where they differ most
- Cost Efficiency: Gemma 3 27B 95%, GPT-4o 46%. Gemma 3 27B leads on this dimension.
- Reasoning: Gemma 3 27B 68%, GPT-4o 61%. Gemma 3 27B leads on this dimension.
Capability scores are ModelRefs' own derived signals, not vendor claims or benchmark results. Validate against your own workload before relying on them.
Continue your research
Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to GPT-4o vs Gemma 3 27B.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, GPT-4o or Gemma 3 27B?
GPT-4o and Gemma 3 27B target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.
Is GPT-4o cheaper than Gemma 3 27B?
Compare $0.00250 vs $0.00010 on this page.