GPT-5.2 Instant vs Gemini 3.1 Pro

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

GPT-5.2 Instant finishes one point ahead overall, 85 to 84. That is enough to call, but not enough to treat as a blowout. This matchup comes down to a few meaningful edges rather than one model dominating the board.

GPT-5.2 Instant's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 75.5 against 71.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 83 to 77. Gemini 3.1 Pro does hit back in multimodal & grounded, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-5.2 Instant is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.50 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.25 input / $5.00 output per 1M tokens for Gemini 3.1 Pro. GPT-5.2 Instant is the reasoning model in the pair, while Gemini 3.1 Pro is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Gemini 3.1 Pro gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for GPT-5.2 Instant.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.2 Instant if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemini 3.1 Pro only becomes the better choice if multimodal & grounded is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.6

Gemini 3.1 Pro

76.1

83
Terminal-Bench 2.0
77
82
BrowseComp
86
74
OSWorld-Verified
68

Coding

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

75.5

Gemini 3.1 Pro

71.9

87
HumanEval
91
75
SWE-bench Verified
75
74
LiveCodeBench
71
77
SWE-bench Pro
72

Multimodal & Grounded

Gemini 3.1 Pro

GPT-5.2 Instant

93.1

Gemini 3.1 Pro

95

94
MMMU-Pro
95
92
OfficeQA Pro
95

Reasoning

Gemini 3.1 Pro

GPT-5.2 Instant

90.9

Gemini 3.1 Pro

92.7

95
SimpleQA
95
93
MuSR
93
96
BBH
92
89
LongBench v2
93
84
MRCRv2
90

Knowledge

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.8

Gemini 3.1 Pro

79.4

98
MMLU
99
97
GPQA
97
95
SuperGPQA
95
93
OpenBookQA
93
88
MMLU-Pro
92
43
HLE
40
91
FrontierScience
88

Instruction Following

Tie

GPT-5.2 Instant

95

Gemini 3.1 Pro

95

95
IFEval
95

Multilingual

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

94.4

Gemini 3.1 Pro

94.1

95
MGSM
96
94
MMLU-ProX
93

Mathematics

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

97.2

Gemini 3.1 Pro

96.8

99
AIME 2023
99
99
AIME 2024
99
98
AIME 2025
98
95
HMMT Feb 2023
95
97
HMMT Feb 2024
97
96
HMMT Feb 2025
96
96
BRUMO 2025
96
98
MATH-500
97

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant is ahead overall, 85 to 84. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 83 and 77.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 79.4. Inside this category, MMLU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 71.9. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.2 versus 96.8. Inside this category, MATH-500 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Gemini 3.1 Pro has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.7 versus 90.9. Inside this category, MRCRv2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.6 versus 76.1. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Gemini 3.1 Pro has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 95 versus 93.1. Inside this category, OfficeQA Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant and Gemini 3.1 Pro are effectively tied for instruction following here, both landing at 95 on average.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 94.4 versus 94.1. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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