Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemma 3 12B
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Gemma 3 12B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 15.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 94.2% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 32.1 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2025-03-12 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 8K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.75 | $0.15 |
| Results tracked | 46 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 52.7% | 17.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | 1281 |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 30.4% |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 10.6% | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | 1309 |
| DTBench | 95.5% | 48.8% |
| LMCA | 44.9% | 4.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | 123.5 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | 16.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | 1307 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | 39.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | 1248 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.4% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Gemma 3 12B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |
| MindCube | — | 46.7% |
Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | 1318 |
| LMArena German | 1478 | 1370 |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | 1335 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | — |
| LMArena French | 1504 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | 1299 |
Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | 1317 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | 1334 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | 1126 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1334 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Gemma 3 12B?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemma 3 12B share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.