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Gemma 2 27B vs Grok-4.1 Thinking

Comparing Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Google · xAI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Gemma 2 27B

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Grok-4.1 Thinking

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Gemma 2 27B
Google
Grok-4.1 Thinking
xAI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$3.00 / M
Output price
— / M
$15.00 / M
Context window
—
256,000
Released
Jun 2024
Nov 2025
License
Gemma
Proprietary

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinkingdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies output context (8,000 tokens).

Google
Gemma 2 27B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
xAI
Grok-4.1 Thinking
Input256,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok-4.1 Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Gemma 2 27B does not.

Grok-4.1 Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemma 2 27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Gemma 2 27B is licensed under Gemma, while Grok-4.1 Thinking uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Gemma 2 27B

Gemma

Open weights

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemma 2 27B was released on 2024-06-27, while Grok-4.1 Thinking was released on 2025-11-17.

Grok-4.1 Thinking is 17 months newer than Gemma 2 27B.

Gemma 2 27B

Jun 27, 2024

2.2 years ago

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Nov 17, 2025

9 months ago

1.4yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemma 2 27B
✓ Preferred
Grok-4.1 Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemma 2 27B vs Grok-4.1 Thinking.

Which is better, Gemma 2 27B or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

Gemma 2 27B (Google) and Grok-4.1 Thinking (xAI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Gemma 2 27B compare to Grok-4.1 Thinking in benchmarks?

Gemma 2 27B scores ARC-E: 88.6%, HellaSwag: 86.4%, BoolQ: 84.8%, TriviaQA: 83.7%, Winogrande: 83.7%. Grok-4.1 Thinking scores Creative Writing v3: 86.1%, WMDP: 84.0%, EQ-Bench: 79.3%, ProtocolQA: 79.0%, LMArena Text Leaderboard: 74.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

Gemma 2 27B supports an unknown number of tokens and Grok-4.1 Thinking supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Gemma vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemma 2 27B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

Gemma 2 27B is developed by Google and Grok-4.1 Thinking is developed by xAI.

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