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Head-to-head comparison

Seed 2.1 Turbo vs Gemma 4 31B

Seed 2.1 Turbo (ByteDance Seed) and Gemma 4 31B (Google) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 10 September 2026

As of 10 September 2026, Seed 2.1 Turbo holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#18 vs #28); Gemma 4 31B is 7.4× cheaper per output token ($0.34/1M vs $2.50/1M); and Gemma 4 31B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Seed 2.1 Turbo if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #18 against #28 (76.8 vs 69.8 points).
  • you want the more recently listed model — Seed 2.1 Turbo was listed 12 August 2026, Gemma 4 31B 2 April 2026.

Choose Gemma 4 31B if…

  • API cost matters — $0.34/1M output tokens against $2.50/1M, about 7.4× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.09/1M against $0.50/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Gemma 4 31B ships open weights while Seed 2.1 Turbo is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 13 listed API providers against 1.

Seed 2.1 Turbo vs Gemma 4 31B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Seed 2.1 Turbo and Gemma 4 31B
FieldSeed 2.1 TurboByteDance SeedGemma 4 31BGoogle
ModelCap Index position#18#28
Index score76.869.8
EvidenceEstimatedMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.50$0.09
Output price / 1M tokens$2.50$0.34
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens236K16K
API providers listed113
Weight accessAPI onlyOpen weights
Input modalitiesText, Image, VideoImage, Text, Video
First listed12 August 20262 April 2026
PublisherByteDance SeedGoogle

Evidence: global-corpus-prior over 185 held-out anchors (12%); launch card against 2 resolved peers on 3 rows (88%); exceeds every named peer on 1 of 3 rows; no cross-lab optimism probe available; shrunk 3.1 toward the measured corpus · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Seed 2.1 Turbo vs Gemma 4 31B

Public benchmark boards where Seed 2.1 Turbo or Gemma 4 31B has a published result
BoardSeed 2.1 TurboGemma 4 31BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—14991484–1514Only one result
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis—29.2%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Gemma 4 31B (Non-reasoning)":reasoning=falseOnly one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis—65.5%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Gemma 4 31B (Non-reasoning)":reasoning=falseOnly one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis—11.8%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Gemma 4 31B (Non-reasoning)":reasoning=falseOnly one result
WildClawBench OpenClawWildClawBench—37.6Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Seed 2.1 Turbo vs Gemma 4 31B: common questions

Is Seed 2.1 Turbo better than Gemma 4 31B?

Seed 2.1 Turbo ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 10 September 2026: #18 against #28. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Seed 2.1 Turbo cheaper than Gemma 4 31B?

Gemma 4 31B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.34/1M against $2.50/1M. Input tokens are $0.50/1M for Seed 2.1 Turbo and $0.09/1M for Gemma 4 31B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $2.25 for Seed 2.1 Turbo versus $0.35 for Gemma 4 31B. Gemma 4 31B costs 84.4% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Seed 2.1 Turbo or Gemma 4 31B?

Both publish a 262K-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Seed 2.1 Turbo or Gemma 4 31B?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Seed 2.1 Turbo and Gemma 4 31B open-weight models?

Seed 2.1 Turbo: API only. Gemma 4 31B: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Seed 2.1 Turbo and Gemma 4 31B?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Seed 2.1 Turbo and 13 for Gemma 4 31B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Seed 2.1 Turbo vs Gemma 4 31B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 10 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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