AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open vs GPT-4 Turbo (batch) Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs GPT-4 Turbo (batch) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

GPT-4 Turbo (batch) — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Gemma 4 26B A4BOpenGoogle

$0.04 /M input
$0.22 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window262K tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostYes

GPT-4 Turbo (batch)PaidOpenAI

$5 /M input
$15 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)

TypeProprietary

Context window128K tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostNo

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-4 Turbo (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs GPT-4 Turbo (batch) specs

Spec	Gemma 4 26B A4B	GPT-4 Turbo (batch)	Winner
Maker	Google	OpenAI	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Context window	262K tokens	128K tokens	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Input price	$0.04/M · free self-host	$5/M	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Output price	$0.22/M · free self-host	$15/M	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Vision / multimodal	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Tool / function calling	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	Gemma 4 26B A4B
License	Gemma License	Proprietary	Gemma 4 26B A4B

Price gap & when to choose each

68×cheaper per output token

Gemma 4 26B A4B is ~68× cheaper than GPT-4 Turbo (batch) on output tokens ($0.22 vs $15 per M tokens).

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You need the longer 262K context window
You prioritize data privacy & control
You want the lowest operating costs
You are building open or reproducible AI

Choose GPT-4 Turbo (batch) if…

You want frontier performance through a managed API
You value reliability & ecosystem
You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capability	Gemma 4 26B A4B	GPT-4 Turbo (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✓	✓
Tool / function calling	✓	✓
1M+ context window	✗	✗

Benchmarks: Gemma 4 26B A4B vs GPT-4 Turbo (batch)

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Gemma 4 26B A4B delivers 187× more intelligence per dollar.

Gemma 4 26B A4B

GPT-4 Turbo (batch)

Intelligence index

16.7

Coding index

39.3

21.5

GPQA

79.2%

–

Humanity's Last Exam

19.3%

3.1%

Long Context Reasoning

65.7%

–

IFBench

72.4%

–

τ²-Bench

43.6%

–

τ-Bench Banking

12%

–

Terminal-Bench

39%

–

Terminal-Bench Hard

13.6%

–

MMLU-Pro

–

69.4%

LiveCodeBench

–

29.1%

MATH-500

–

73.7%

AIME

–

15%

Speed

0 tok/s

Latency

Intelligence per $

93.3

0.5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Gemma 4 26B A4B and GPT-4 Turbo (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Gemma 4 26B A4B (4.8 vs 2.8 / 5)

Criterion	Gemma 4 26B A4B	GPT-4 Turbo (batch)
Cost-efficiency	5.0	3.0
Context window	4.0	3.5
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
Multimodality	5.0	5.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open

Google · Open-weight

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...

GPT-4 Turbo (batch) Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

The latest GPT-4 Turbo model with vision capabilities. Vision requests can now use JSON mode and function calling. Training data: up to December 2023.

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Gemma 4 31B (batch)Gemma 4 31BGemma 4 31B (free)Gemma 3 27BGemma 3 4BGemma 3 12BGemma 2 27B

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B as good as GPT-4 Turbo (batch)?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but GPT-4 Turbo (batch) may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Gemma 4 26B A4B locally?

Yes. Gemma 4 26B A4B has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. GPT-4 Turbo (batch) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.22/M output vs $15/M for GPT-4 Turbo (batch) — roughly 68x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs GPT-4 Turbo (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-4 Turbo (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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