Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-4

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

GPT-4 OpenAI

29.1

Rank #316 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 7 categories and GPT-4 in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 3 12B leads 47.5 to 34.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 1.1% for GPT-4.
  • Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $30 / $60 for GPT-4.
  • Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 8K.
  • Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and GPT-4 specifications
Gemma 3 12BGPT-4
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
Noometry Index32.129.1
Released2025-03-122023-03-14
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K8K
Max output8K8K
Input $ / M tokens$0.05$30
Output $ / M tokens$0.15$60
Results tracked2438

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), GPT-4: 31.6 (#283)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
LMArena Coding12811254
SciCode17.4%—
WeirdML—12.4%
BigCodeBench Instruct—46%
BigCodeBench Complete—57.2%
HumanEval+—79.3%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), GPT-4: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard30.4%—
METR Time Horizons—36.1%

Reasoning GPT-4 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), GPT-4: 17.8 (#289)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
Chess Puzzles0%4%
LMArena Hard Prompts13091241
DTBench48.8%62.7%
LMCA4.5%17.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index123.5125.89
CritPt0%—
Mystery Game Puzzles—12%
BIG-Bench Hard—75.1%
ForecastBench—57.8
HellaSwag—95.3%
WinoGrande—87.5%

Math Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), GPT-4: 10.8 (#309)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202516.7%1.1%
LMArena Math13071269
MATH Level 5—23%
GSM8K—92%

Knowledge Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), GPT-4: 18.4 (#282)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
GPQA Diamond39.5%35.7%
LMArena Expert12481211
Vectara Hallucination Rate4.4%—
MMLU—86.4%
TriviaQA—84.8%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, GPT-4: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
MindCube46.7%—

Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), GPT-4: 40.6 (#215)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
LMArena Non-English13181246
LMArena German13701251
LMArena Russian13351251
LMArena Chinese—1242
LMArena French—1283
LMArena Japanese—1209
LMArena Korean—1184
LMArena Spanish—1261

Instruction Following Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), GPT-4: 65.3 (#222)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
LMArena Instruction Following12991241

Long Context Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), GPT-4: 37.7 (#212)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
LMArena Longer Query13171244

Writing & Preference Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), GPT-4: 34.9 (#268)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BGPT-4
LMArena Text13341263
LMArena Creative Writing13311244
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1126752
LMArena Multi-Turn13341257

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than GPT-4?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

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

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; GPT-4 lists at $30 and $60.

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

They score almost the same on coding (31.7 vs 31.6); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 8K.

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

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and GPT-4 has 38.

Related comparisons

Go deeper