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Gemma 2 2B vs o3

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Gemma 2 2B specs · o3 specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo3

    o3 publishes pricing ($8.00 / 1M output tokens) while Gemma 2 2B does not.

  • Context windowo3

    o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • Modalitieso3

    o3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Gemma 2 2B.

  • OpennessGemma 2 2B

    Gemma 2 2B ships open weights (Gemma License); o3 is API-only.

On balance o3 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Gemma 2 2B's 1. o3 publishes pricing ($8.00 / 1M output tokens) while Gemma 2 2B does not. o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Gemma 2 2B handles text while o3 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Gemma 2 2B ships open weights (Gemma License); o3 is API-only.

o3 is the newer of the two, released 9 months after Gemma 2 2B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Gemma 2 2B is usually picked for on device and edge deployment workloads, while o3 sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGemma 2 2Bo3
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
ReleasedJul 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window8.2K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$2.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$8.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-06
Open weightsYes (Gemma License)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $18.00
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $180
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $348

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Gemma 2 2BPricing unavailable
  • o3$0.600

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Gemma 2 2Bo3
  • HumanEval,95.0
  • GPQA,87.7
Pick Gemma 2 2B if

Gemma 2 2B fits when…

  • Tiny, runs on phones
  • Wide tooling
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Gemma License).
Pick o3 if

o3 fits when…

  • Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
  • Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
  • Tool-use during reasoning loops
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 2B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Gemini 3 Pro

Google's late-2025 flagship, set new benchmarks on long-context, vision, and reasoning at competitive pricing.

See Gemini 3 Pro specsGemma 2 2B vs Gemini 3 Proo3 vs Gemini 3 Pro

Frequently asked

  • Is Gemma 2 2B or o3 cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 2B.
  • Is Gemma 2 2B or o3 better for coding?
    Both Gemma 2 2B and o3 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Gemma 2 2B ships open weights (Gemma License). o3 is API-only.
  • When were Gemma 2 2B and o3 released?
    Gemma 2 2B was released by Google on 2024-07-31. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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