API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥GPT-5.5 vs 🔥Gemma 4 31B

Pick Gemma 4 31B for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-17T02:07:32Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Gemma 4 31B for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B is estimated at $0.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $19.7 (98.5% lower).

Cost-first pickGemma 4 31B

Context-first pickGPT-5.5

Sample savings$19.798.5%

10x traffic gap$196.95

GPT-5.5 has more context, but Gemma 4 31B saves $19.7 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $196.95. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cheaper input Gemma 4 31B $5 vs $0.12 / 1M

Gemma 4 31B is $4.88 cheaper per 1M input tokens (97.6% lower; 41.7x difference).

Cheaper output Gemma 4 31B $30 vs $0.37 / 1M

Gemma 4 31B is $29.63 cheaper per 1M output tokens (98.8% lower; 81.1x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.5 1.05M vs 262.14K

GPT-5.5 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).

Sample workload Gemma 4 31B $20 vs $0.3

Gemma 4 31B is $19.7 cheaper on the standard workload (98.5% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

GPT-5.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Gemma 4 31B 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

Gemma 4 31B has the lower input price; Gemma 4 31B has the lower output price; GPT-5.5 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Gemma 4 31B is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $20 for GPT-5.5 and $0.3 for Gemma 4 31B.

Best Fit

Choose GPT-5.5 when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Gemma 4 31B when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B is estimated at $0.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $19.7 (98.5% lower).
Gemma 4 31B is $19.7 cheaper on the standard workload (98.5% lower).
Gemma 4 31B is $4.88 cheaper per 1M input tokens (97.6% lower; 41.7x difference).
Gemma 4 31B is $29.63 cheaper per 1M output tokens (98.8% lower; 81.1x difference).
GPT-5.5 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	🔥GPT-5.5 (OpenAI)	🔥Gemma 4 31B (Google)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$5	$0.12
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$30	$0.37
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$20	$0.3
Context Window	1.05M	262.14K
Release Date	2026-04-24	2026-04-02
Popularity Rank current rank	#15	#18

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Gemma 4 31B	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B is estimated at $0.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $19.7 (98.5% lower).
High-volume input processing	Gemma 4 31B	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Gemma 4 31B	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.5	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
gpt-oss-120b can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.13.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.

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Cheaper alternatives

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OpenAI catalog

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Google catalog

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GPT-5.5

GPT-5.5 is OpenAI’s frontier model designed for complex professional workloads, building on GPT-5.4 with stronger reasoning, higher reliability, and improved token efficiency on hard tasks. It features a 1M+ token...

Gemma 4 31B

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...