Model comparison

Gemma 2 27B vs o3-mini

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 2 27B costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 31 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 2 27B Google

29.4

Rank #312 Confirmed

o3-mini OpenAI

36.7

Rank #212 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 31 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 27B scores higher in 1 category and o3-mini in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where o3-mini leads 38.3 to 19.0.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 1.4% for Gemma 2 27B and 76.9% for o3-mini.
  • Gemma 2 27B is cheaper at $0.65 / $0.65 per million input/output tokens, against $1.10 / $4.40 for o3-mini.
  • o3-mini accepts more context: 200K tokens versus 8K.
  • Gemma 2 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 2 27B and o3-mini specifications
Gemma 2 27Bo3-mini
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
Noometry Index29.436.7
Released2024-06-242024-12-20
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window8K200K
Max output2K100K
Input $ / M tokens$0.65$1.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.65$4.40
Results tracked3451

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Category by category

Coding o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 34.1 (#246), o3-mini: 40.8 (#132)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LiveBench Coding36%82.7%
LMArena Coding12111378
Aider Polyglot—60.4%
SciCode—39.8%
GSO—1.3%
WeirdML—43.7%
BigCodeBench Instruct42.8%—
BigCodeBench Complete52.5%—
CadEval—54%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 2 27B: —, o3-mini: 29.6 (#84)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
Cybench—22.5%

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemma 2 27B: 15.3 (#315), o3-mini: 16.3 (#305)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LiveBench Reasoning28.1%89.6%
LMArena Hard Prompts11981366
DTBench48%68.8%
LiveBench Data Analysis47.9%70.6%
LMCA7.1%19%
Epoch Capabilities Index122.08140.34
LiveBench38.2%75.9%
ARC-AGI-2—3%
SimpleBench—22.8%
ARC-AGI-1—34.5%
CritPt—0.3%
Chess Puzzles—17%
Mystery Game Puzzles—7%
ForecastBench—59.6

Math o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 10.7 (#311), o3-mini: 28.1 (#244)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20251.4%76.9%
LiveBench Math26.5%77.3%
LMArena Math12121396
MATH Level 527.9%96.5%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—18.6%
FrontierMath Tier 4—0%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—12.4%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—4.2%

Knowledge o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 19.0 (#280), o3-mini: 38.3 (#146)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
GPQA Diamond36.5%77%
Confabulations27.1%17.9%
LMArena Expert11721364
SimpleQA Verified—15.3%
MMLU75.7%—

Multilingual o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 38.6 (#226), o3-mini: 45.7 (#164)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LMArena Non-English12171319
LMArena Chinese12211379
LMArena French12471334
LMArena German12091303
LMArena Japanese11751286
LMArena Korean11741314
LMArena Russian12341304
LMArena Spanish12281321

Instruction Following o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 60.5 (#249), o3-mini: 75.1 (#72)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LiveBench Instruction Following58.1%84.4%
LMArena Instruction Following12061337

Long Context Gemma 2 27B leads

Gemma 2 27B: 37.3 (#218), o3-mini: 33.8 (#256)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LMArena Longer Query12311343
Fiction.LiveBench—50%

Writing & Preference o3-mini leads

Gemma 2 27B: 44.2 (#225), o3-mini: 50.3 (#182)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 2 27Bo3-mini
LMArena Text12311337
LMArena Creative Writing12411286
LMArena Multi-Turn12241320
LiveBench Language32.6%50.7%
Short-Story Creative Writing—61.7%

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 2 27B better than o3-mini?

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 2 27B costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 2 27B or o3-mini?

Gemma 2 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.65 per million input tokens and $0.65 per million output tokens; o3-mini lists at $1.10 and $4.40.

Is Gemma 2 27B or o3-mini better for coding?

o3-mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 34.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3-mini does, with 200K tokens against 8K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 27B and o3-mini share?

31 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 27B has 34 scored results on Noometry and o3-mini has 51.

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