Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale vs Gemma 3 12B

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 1 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale

DeepSeek

39.7

Rank #162 Reported

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Summary

They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale scores higher in 2 categories and Gemma 3 12B in 1 category; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads 32.9 to 15.7.
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.58 / $1.68 for DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale.
Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale and Gemma 3 12B specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
Provider	DeepSeek	Google
Noometry Index	39.7	32.1
Released	2025-12-01	2025-03-12
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	128K	131K
Max output	128K	8K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.58	$0.05
Output $ / M tokens	$1.68	$0.15
Results tracked	3	24

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 40.4 (#140), Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
SciCode	—	17.4%
WeirdML	46.7%	—
LMArena Coding	—	1281

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	—	30.4%

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 32.9 (#73), Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
SimpleBench	52.6%	—
CritPt	—	0%
Chess Puzzles	—	0%
LMArena Hard Prompts	—	1309
DTBench	—	48.8%
LMCA	—	4.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	—	123.5

Math Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	16.7%
LMArena Math	—	1307

Knowledge Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
GPQA Diamond	—	39.5%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	4.4%
LMArena Expert	—	1248

Multimodal Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
MindCube	—	46.7%

Multilingual Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
LMArena Non-English	—	1318
LMArena German	—	1370
LMArena Russian	—	1335

Instruction Following Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
LMArena Instruction Following	—	1299

Long Context Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
LMArena Longer Query	—	1317

Writing & Preference Gemma 3 12B leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 46.0 (#222), Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Gemma 3 12B
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1276	1126
LMArena Text	—	1334
LMArena Creative Writing	—	1331
LMArena Multi-Turn	—	1334

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale better than Gemma 3 12B?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale or Gemma 3 12B?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale lists at $0.58 and $1.68.

Is DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale and Gemma 3 12B share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale has 3 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.