API cost decision in 10 seconds

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) vs Gemma 4 31B (free)

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T10:03:26Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T12:43:06Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

Both models are estimated at $0 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Cost-first pickTie

Context-first pickBoth models

Sample savings$00%

10x traffic gap$0

Context-window winner: Both models. Cost does not separate this pair on the standard workload, so the next decision point is context window and model behavior.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

The two models stay tied across the input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)	Gemma 4 31B (free)
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Tie	$0	$0
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Tie	$0	$0
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Tie	$0	$0

Cheaper input Tie $0 vs $0 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $0 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Tie $0 vs $0 / 1M

Both models report the same output price at $0 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Tie 262.14K vs 262.14K

Both models report the same context window at 262.14K tokens.

Sample workload Tie $0 vs $0

Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $0.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Gemma 4 31B (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

both models tie on input price; both models tie on output price; both models report the same context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, the standard workload cost is tied.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) and $0 for Gemma 4 31B (free).

Best Fit

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Gemma 4 31B (free) when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

Both models are estimated at $0 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $0.
Both models report the same input price at $0 per 1M tokens.
Both models report the same output price at $0 per 1M tokens.
Both models report the same context window at 262.14K tokens.

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) (Google)	Gemma 4 31B (free) (Google)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0	$0
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0	$0
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0	$0
Context Window	262.14K	262.14K
Release Date	2026-04-03	2026-04-02

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Tie	Both models are estimated at $0 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Tie	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Tie	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.

Larger context near this budget

Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Lyria 3 Clip Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Google catalog

Review all tracked Google models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open Google models

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind. Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...

Gemma 4 31B (free)

Gemma 4 31B Instruct is Google DeepMind's 30.7B dense multimodal model supporting text and image input with text output. Features a 256K token context window, configurable thinking/reasoning mode, native function...