Gemini 4 Argon or Grok 4.6: which to choose?

Side-by-side comparison

Criterion	Gemini 4 Argon	Grok 4.6
Developer	Google DeepMind	xAI
Released	October 13, 2026	August 12, 2026
Capability index	95.3 / 100	86.1 / 100
Input price	$2	$2
Output price	$10	$6
Cost of a typical task	$0.06	$0.052
Context window	1,048,576 tokens	500,000 tokens
Maximum output	32,768 tokens	500,000 tokens
Reasoning mode	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Accepted inputs	text, image, video, audio, PDF	text, image, PDF
Open weights	No	No
Knowledge cutoff	March 2026	February 1, 2026

What are we comparing?

This comparison pits the flagship models of two major developers against each other: Gemini 4 Argon and Grok 4.6, one from Google DeepMind, the other from xAI. The first dates from October 13, 2026, the second from August 12, 2026.

All figures below come from public sources checked on October 22, 2026: models.dev and OpenRouter for prices and capabilities, Epoch AI for scores.

What the benchmarks say

On our capability index, Gemini 4 Argon scores 95.3 out of 100 and Grok 4.6 86.1. Gemini 4 Argon leads by 9.2 points.

On the 5 benchmarks reported for both, Gemini 4 Argon wins 4 times and Grok 4.6 1:

GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Grok 4.6 94%
OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Grok 4.6 99.2%
FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): Gemini 4 Argon 86%, Grok 4.6 66%
FrontierCode (advanced programming tasks): Gemini 4 Argon 47.6%, Grok 4.6 48%
APEX-Agents (professional tasks carried out by an agent): Gemini 4 Argon 82.4%, Grok 4.6 65.3%

Which one costs less?

Gemini 4 Argon costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens; Grok 4.6 costs $2 and $6.

For a typical agent task (read 20,000 tokens, write 2,000), expect $0.06 with Gemini 4 Argon versus $0.052 with Grok 4.6. Grok 4.6 is 1.2 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $8 difference.

Run the numbers with your own volumes in the agent cost calculator.

Under the hood

Gemini 4 Argon reads more in one go: 1,048,576 tokens of context (roughly 1,573 pages), versus 500,000 for Grok 4.6.

Reasoning mode: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Grok 4.6 yes. Tool calling: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Grok 4.6 yes. Image input: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Grok 4.6 yes.

Neither publishes its weights: both are used through an API.

Knowledge cutoff: March 2026 for Gemini 4 Argon, February 1, 2026 for Grok 4.6.

In short

Our reading of the data:

Choose Gemini 4 Argon for a higher capability index, a larger context window and a more recent release.
Choose Grok 4.6 for a lower cost.

This verdict relies on public figures; it does not replace a trial on your own tasks.

Frequently asked questions

Gemini 4 Argon or Grok 4.6: which is better?

On our index (Epoch AI data), Gemini 4 Argon scores 95.3 and Grok 4.6 86.1 out of 100. The best choice also depends on price and on your use case.

Which one is cheaper?

Grok 4.6. To read 20,000 tokens and write 2,000, expect $0.06 with Gemini 4 Argon and $0.052 with Grok 4.6 (prices as of October 22, 2026).

Which one has the larger context window?

Gemini 4 Argon, with 1,048,576 tokens versus 500,000.

Can I run Gemini 4 Argon or Grok 4.6 on my own servers?

No: both are closed models, available through an API.

Gemini 4 Argon versus Grok 4.6