Comparison

Gemini vs Grok

Gemini vs Grok in 2026 — how Google's and SpaceXAI's assistants compare on intelligence, coding, context, real-time data, multimodality, pricing and safety, and which one to choose.

Updated July 2026

Quick answer: For most people, Gemini is the better all-rounder, while Grok is the sharper pick for cheap top-tier reasoning, coding and real-time data. Gemini, made by Google, runs Gemini 3.1 Pro, handles up to 1M tokens in-app, generates images and video natively (Imagen and Veo), and is woven into Google Search, Android and Workspace across roughly 900 million monthly users. Grok, now made by SpaceXAI (renamed from xAI on 6 July 2026), runs the brand-new Grok 4.5 — launched 8 July 2026 and scoring 54 on the independent Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ahead of every Gemini model (5th overall, just behind the OpenAI and Anthropic flagships) — and it is the only major assistant that reads live X (Twitter) data. Grok 4.5 is also cheaper on the API, at $2/$6 per million input/output tokens versus Gemini 3.1 Pro’s $2/$12. Pick Gemini for value, long context, multimodality, media generation and Google integration; pick Grok for the higher-scoring reasoning-and-coding model of the two, real-time social data and fewer content guardrails. Two caveats: Grok 4.5 is only days old with independent testing still landing and ships a smaller 500K-token context, and Grok carries a 2026 deepfake and child-safety scandal plus far thinner enterprise compliance than Gemini.

At a glance

The models behind them

On paid tiers, Gemini runs Gemini 3.1 Pro (released 19 February 2026) and Grok runs Grok 4.5 (launched 8 July 2026). Grok 4.5 supersedes Grok 4.3 and is SpaceXAI’s first model built specifically for coding and agentic work rather than casual chat — Elon Musk described it as an “Opus-class model” (TechCrunch). It is built on a 1.5-trillion-parameter foundation and trained partly on real Cursor coding-session data (SpaceXAI). Google’s own next flagship, Gemini 3.5 Pro, was unveiled at Google I/O on 19 May 2026 with a 2M-token context window and a Deep Think reasoning mode, but as of mid-July 2026 it remains in limited preview with general availability targeted around 17 July and no official benchmarks published (Tech Times). Until it ships broadly, Gemini 3.1 Pro is the Gemini flagship that matters for this comparison.

The context here is a company reset. SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed on 2 February 2026, and the company changed its name, logo and X handle to SpaceXAI on 6 July 2026 (Yahoo Finance); Grok 4.5 launched two days later as the first flagship under the new brand.

On the independent Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Grok 4.5 scores 54 — good for 4th at its 8 July launch, but OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol went generally available the next day at 59, nudging Grok 4.5 to 5th, behind Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol, Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 — yet still ahead of every Gemini model. That is a real jump: the previous Grok 4.3 sat mid-pack at 53.2. The two makers’ models are differently shaped, though. Grok 4.5 is a lean, coding-focused reasoning model; Gemini 3.1 Pro is a broad multimodal generalist with disclosed, leading numbers on the benchmarks it reports.

Here is how the two usable flagships compare on headline benchmarks. Grok 4.5 figures are from Artificial Analysis; Gemini 3.1 Pro figures are Google-reported from its February 2026 launch, with independent context from Artificial Analysis. The harnesses differ, so treat cross-vendor rows as directional rather than same-harness results.

Two accuracy notes. SpaceXAI has not published clean SWE-bench Verified or Pro percentages for Grok 4.5; instead it reports token-efficiency figures, claiming Grok 4.5 resolves SWE-bench Pro tasks in about 15,954 output tokens on average against roughly 67,020 for Claude Opus 4.8 — a vendor-run efficiency claim, not an independent accuracy score. Gemini 3.1 Pro’s numbers are vendor-reported against Google’s own harness and are around a year old now; its standardised public SWE-bench Pro placement is lower, at ~46.1%. Vendor numbers are a ceiling; standardised leaderboards are a floor.

The free tiers differ too. Gemini free runs Gemini 3.5 Flash with limited access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, while Grok free runs older Grok 4-class models rather than the 4.5 flagship. For where every model ranks across the field, see best AI models.

Pricing

Gemini is cheaper in the consumer app; Grok is cheaper on the API. Google AI Pro is $19.99/month and bundles 2TB of Google One storage, Veo video generation and a 1M-token context window; Google AI Ultra is $99.99/month (cut from $249.99), adding 30TB of storage, YouTube Premium, the Deep Think reasoning mode and early access to Gemini 3.5 Pro. Grok’s flagship is reachable on SuperGrok Lite at $10/month, with the fuller SuperGrok at $30/month and SuperGrok Heavy at $300/month (adding the multi-agent Grok 4 Heavy); Grok 4.5 is rolling out across these tiers. So the cheapest on-ramp to each maker’s flagship is $10 on Grok versus $19.99 on Gemini, but Gemini’s mid-tier bundles storage and media generation that Grok does not.

On the API the picture inverts on volume. Grok 4.5 costs $2/$6 per million input/output tokens (cached input $0.50), against $2/$12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro (cached input $0.20) — input is tied, but Grok’s output is half the price, so Grok is materially cheaper for output-heavy workloads (OpenRouter). Both climb on very long prompts — Gemini bills requests over 200,000 tokens at $4/$18, and Grok 4.5 applies a higher rate above the same threshold — but Grok’s harder limit is context length: it caps at 500K tokens where Gemini handles 1M.

Neither app shows ads today, but the commitments differ. Google has briefed advertisers on bringing ads to Gemini in 2026 without confirming firm plans, and the Grok standalone app is ad-free but tied to X, which is ad-supported. For students, Gemini has a clear edge: Google AI Pro is free for a year for university students in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil and Indonesia, with no Grok equivalent.

Coding

This is the closest it has ever been, and the reason to consider Grok. Grok 4.5 was built specifically for coding and agentic work, and independent early testing puts it roughly on par with GPT-5.5 in the Codex agent at about half the per-task cost, driven by unusually low token consumption (Artificial Analysis). SpaceXAI’s headline efficiency claim — resolving SWE-bench Pro tasks in ~4× fewer output tokens than Claude Opus 4.8 — is a vendor figure, but the direction is clear: Grok 4.5 is a cheap, fast, capable coding model, and the low-cost Grok Code Fast variant is popular for high-volume agentic coding.

Gemini’s coding case is documented benchmarks plus context. Gemini 3.1 Pro posts 80.6% on SWE-bench Verified and 54.2% on the harder SWE-bench Pro (Google-reported), and its 1M-token in-app context lets it hold an entire codebase, long specs or hours of logs in a single prompt — twice Grok 4.5’s 500K ceiling. Grok 4.5 has not published comparable accuracy percentages, so on like-for-like disclosed coding scores Gemini is the safer known quantity, while Grok’s pitch is cost-efficiency and speed. Neither leads the field overall: for the strongest code quality, Claude Opus 4.8 (88.6% SWE-bench Verified) sits above both. Full detail in best AI for coding.

Writing and reasoning

Gemini is the better general writer; Grok is the stronger raw reasoner on the aggregate index. Gemini 3.1 Pro produces clean, well-sourced first drafts for research reports, technical summaries and data-heavy documents, helped by tight grounding in real-time Google Search results, and it handles everyday prose more naturally than Grok, which SpaceXAI explicitly positions as a coding-and-knowledge tool rather than a casual chatbot. On graduate-level science the two are effectively tied — Gemini 3.1 Pro’s 94.3% on GPQA Diamond narrowly edges Grok 4.5’s 93% (different harnesses). On the aggregate Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Grok 4.5 (54) leads every Gemini model, reflecting strong hard-reasoning and maths performance. For polished, grounded writing choose Gemini; for the highest composite reasoning score of the two, Grok 4.5 is ahead. For prose quality specifically, neither beats Claude.

Context, speed and multimodality

Gemini wins decisively on context and multimodality; the two are close on speed. Gemini handles 1M tokens in-app (rising to 2M on the forthcoming Gemini 3.5 Pro), against 500K for Grok 4.5 — down from Grok 4.3’s 1M, as SpaceXAI narrowed the newer model’s focus to coding and agentic work. On input, Gemini accepts text, images, video, audio and PDFs natively and can process up to an hour of video in a single prompt; Grok 4.5 accepts text and images and adds video input, but not Gemini’s full audio-and-video breadth. On output, both generate images and video — Gemini through Imagen / Nano Banana and Veo, Grok through Aurora and Grok Imagine (paid tiers only). Both are reasoning models with fast sustained output, though Grok’s reasoning modes can be slow to first token. For long documents, whole codebases and multimodal work, Gemini is the clearer tool.

Features and ecosystem

Gemini has the broader consumer and enterprise ecosystem; Grok has real-time X data and a looser personality. Gemini is woven into products billions already use — Search, Android, Chrome and Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides) — and the app passed 900 million monthly active users by mid-2026, second only to ChatGPT. It ships an agentic browser (Project Mariner), custom assistants (Gems), the Deep Research agent and bundled Google One storage.

Grok’s three genuine differentiators are real-time data, native video input and voice companions. Grok can read live X posts, trends and sentiment — which no rival accesses directly — and its DeepSearch agent returns cited research reports in under a minute. It offers persistent voice companions (the animated characters Ani and Valentine) with no Gemini equivalent, and it applies fewer content guardrails. But Grok has a far smaller integration ecosystem, no deep productivity-suite tie-in, and its reach outside X and Tesla is limited. If your day runs through Gmail, Docs and Android, Gemini removes friction Grok cannot match; if you need live social data or a less-filtered assistant, Grok is the only option here.

Privacy, safety and data

For consumer tiers, both providers may use your conversations to train their models by default, with an opt-out in settings; for business, enterprise, Workspace and API use, both contractually exclude training by default. Beyond the defaults, the gap is wide. Gemini is unusually well credentialed for enterprise and public-sector work: Google was among the first to certify an AI product to ISO 42001, and Gemini also carries SOC 1/2/3, FedRAMP High, HIPAA and FERPA coverage, with a default 18-month data retention that is configurable.

Grok’s safety record is the standing concern. Grok generated significant controversy in 2026 over deepfake and child-safety incidents that led xAI to restrict image generation, and it holds far fewer enterprise certifications than Gemini. Commentators noted that the SpaceXAI rebrand ties a major corporate brand more tightly to a product with an unusually troubled safety history (Gizmodo). For regulated industries, government use or anything genuinely sensitive, Gemini’s compliance footprint makes it the safer institutional choice; use a business tier regardless of which you prefer.

Choose Gemini if…

• You want the best value and the broadest capability — a $19.99 plan that bundles 2TB of storage, native image and video generation, and a 1M-token context window.
• You work across long documents, whole codebases or multimodal input (video, audio, PDFs), or need image and video generation in the same app.
• You live in Google Workspace, Android and Search, need enterprise compliance (ISO 42001, FedRAMP High, HIPAA), or are a student eligible for a free year of Google AI Pro.

Choose Grok if…

• You want the higher-scoring model of the two — Grok 4.5 scores 54 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ahead of every Gemini — and a coding model that is fast and token-efficient.
• You need real-time X (Twitter) data, cited DeepSearch reports, or the cheapest output-heavy API ($2/$6 per million tokens).
• You want voice companions or a less-filtered assistant, and you do not need a 1M-token context or deep enterprise compliance.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini or Grok better?

It depends on the job. Gemini is the better all-rounder — it runs Gemini 3.1 Pro, handles up to 1M tokens in-app, generates images and video natively, plugs into Google Search, Android and Workspace, and carries deep enterprise compliance. Grok runs the newer Grok 4.5, which scores 54 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (ahead of every Gemini model), is cheaper on the API and uniquely reads live X data. For value, multimodality and integration, choose Gemini; for top-tier reasoning-and-coding intelligence, real-time data and lower guardrails, choose Grok.

Is Gemini or Grok cheaper?

It depends where. In the consumer app, Grok’s flagship starts at $10/month (SuperGrok Lite) versus $19.99 for Google AI Pro, so Grok’s on-ramp is cheaper — but Gemini bundles 2TB of storage and media generation at that price. On the API, Grok 4.5 is $2/$6 per million input/output tokens versus $2/$12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro, so Grok is about half the price for output-heavy workloads. Gemini is also free for a year for eligible students, which Grok does not match.

Which is better for coding?

They are close, and it is the strongest reason to consider Grok. Grok 4.5 was built for coding and is roughly on par with GPT-5.5’s Codex at about half the per-task cost, thanks to low token consumption. Gemini 3.1 Pro has the documented benchmark scores (80.6% SWE-bench Verified, 54.2% SWE-bench Pro) and twice the context (1M vs 500K), which helps on whole-repo work. Grok 4.5 has not published comparable accuracy percentages. For the strongest code quality overall, Claude Opus 4.8 leads both. See best AI for coding.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini. Gemini handles up to 1M tokens in-app, rising to 2M on the forthcoming Gemini 3.5 Pro, whereas Grok 4.5 caps at 500K tokens — down from Grok 4.3’s 1M. For very long documents and codebases, Gemini has the clear edge.

Does Grok have real-time data that Gemini doesn’t?

Yes. Grok can read live X (Twitter) posts, trends and sentiment directly, which Gemini cannot — Gemini grounds answers in Google Search results but does not read individual X posts as they are published. Grok’s DeepSearch agent also returns cited reports in under a minute. For live social data and breaking-news monitoring, Grok has a genuine moat.

Is Grok 4.5 better than Gemini 3.1 Pro?

On the aggregate Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, yes — Grok 4.5 scores 54, ahead of every Gemini model, including Gemini 3.1 Pro (5th overall, behind the OpenAI and Anthropic flagships). But “better” depends on the task: Gemini 3.1 Pro has a larger 1M-token context, fuller native multimodality, image and video generation, and documented coding benchmarks, while Grok 4.5 leads on composite reasoning score, API cost and real-time data. Grok 4.5 is also only days old, so independent verification is still landing.

Which is better for images and video?

Both generate images and video, but Gemini is the stronger media tool. Gemini generates images with Imagen / Nano Banana and video with Veo, one of the best video generators available, and accepts video and audio as input. Grok generates images with Aurora and short video with Grok Imagine on paid tiers, and accepts video input, but its media suite is narrower. If media generation matters, Gemini leads.

Is Grok safe for sensitive or enterprise use?

Gemini is the safer institutional choice. Gemini carries ISO 42001, SOC 1/2/3, FedRAMP High, HIPAA and FERPA coverage, whereas Grok holds far fewer enterprise certifications and was involved in 2026 deepfake and child-safety incidents that led to image-generation restrictions. For regulated industries, government or genuinely sensitive work, Gemini’s compliance footprint makes it the stronger pick; use a business tier in either case.