Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Gemma 3 4B

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 3 12B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 21 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Gemma 3 4B

Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

Summary

They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 8 categories and Gemma 3 4B in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemma 3 12B leads 26.5 to 11.8.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 39.5% for Gemma 3 12B and 23.2% for Gemma 3 4B.
Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.05 / $0.15 for Gemma 3 12B.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 3 4B specifications
	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
Provider	Google	Google
Noometry Index	32.1	28.1
Released	2025-03-12	2025-03-12
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	131K
Max output	8K	4K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$0.04
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$0.08
Results tracked	24	22

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Category by category

Coding Gemma 3 4B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Coding	1281	1230
SciCode	17.4%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	30.4%	19.6%

Reasoning Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
Chess Puzzles	0%	0%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1309	1253
DTBench	48.8%	50.9%
LMCA	4.5%	2.8%
Epoch Capabilities Index	123.5	116.02
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	25.2%
CritPt	0%	—

Math Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	16.7%	7.5%
LMArena Math	1307	1239

Knowledge Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
GPQA Diamond	39.5%	23.2%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	4.4%	6.4%
LMArena Expert	1248	1223

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Gemma 3 4B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
MindCube	46.7%	—

Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Non-English	1318	1273
LMArena German	1370	1281
LMArena Russian	1335	1294

Instruction Following Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Instruction Following	1299	1239

Long Context Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Longer Query	1317	1273

Writing & Preference Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Text	1334	1291
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	1271
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1126	1068
LMArena Multi-Turn	1334	1255

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Gemma 3 4B?

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Gemma 3 4B?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Gemma 3 12B lists at $0.05 and $0.15.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Gemma 3 4B better for coding?

Gemma 3 4B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.9 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 3 4B share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 4B has 22.