Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Kimi K2.5

Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI

48.1

Rank #57 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K2.5 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.5 leads 51.8 to 22.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 92.2% for Kimi K2.5.
  • Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $2.25 for Kimi K2.5.
  • Kimi K2.5 accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Kimi K2.5 specifications
Gemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
ProviderGoogleMoonshot AI
Noometry Index32.148.1
Released2025-03-122026-01-27
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K262K
Max output8K262K
Input $ / M tokens$0.05$0.45
Output $ / M tokens$0.15$2.25
Results tracked2451

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Kimi K2.5: 48.8 (#53)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
SciCode17.4%49%
LMArena Coding12811474
SWE-bench Verified—73.8%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—70.8%
LMArena WebDev—1437
SWE-bench Multilingual—67.3%
WeirdML—45.6%
ALE-Bench—821.65

Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Kimi K2.5: 34.2 (#48)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
Terminal-Bench—43.2%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard30.4%—
OSWorld—63.3%
Vending-Bench 2—1,198

Reasoning Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Kimi K2.5: 31.2 (#80)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
CritPt0%3.1%
Chess Puzzles0%12%
LMArena Hard Prompts13091453
Epoch Capabilities Index123.5148.03
ARC-AGI-2—11.8%
SimpleBench—46.8%
Kagi LLM Benchmark—78.5%
NYT Connections (extended)—69.9%
ARC-AGI-1—65.3%
EnigmaEval—3.4%
Thematic Generalization—69.4%
DTBench48.8%—
LMCA4.5%—

Math Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Kimi K2.5: 51.8 (#53)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202516.7%92.2%
LMArena Math13071470
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—62.3%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—27.9%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—4.2%

Knowledge Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Kimi K2.5: 53.6 (#56)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
GPQA Diamond39.5%87.6%
Vectara Hallucination Rate4.4%14.2%
LMArena Expert12481466
Humanity's Last Exam—24.4%
SimpleQA Verified—34.3%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Kimi K2.5: 41.1 (#39)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
LMArena Vision—1269
LMArena Document—1430
MindCube46.7%—

Multilingual Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Kimi K2.5: 53.9 (#53)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
LMArena Non-English13181433
LMArena German13701441
LMArena Russian13351435
LMArena Chinese—1495
LMArena French—1454
LMArena Japanese—1421
LMArena Korean—1410
LMArena Spanish—1450

Instruction Following Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Kimi K2.5: 75.3 (#64)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
LMArena Instruction Following12991431

Long Context Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Kimi K2.5: 52.1 (#7)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
LMArena Longer Query13171445
Fiction.LiveBench—86.1%
CL-bench—19.3%
CL-bench Life—13.2%

Writing & Preference Kimi K2.5 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Kimi K2.5: 65.1 (#53)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BKimi K2.5
LMArena Text13341445
LMArena Creative Writing13311423
EQ-Bench Creative Writing11261579
LMArena Multi-Turn13341444

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Kimi K2.5?

Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Kimi K2.5?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.5 lists at $0.45 and $2.25.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Kimi K2.5 better for coding?

Kimi K2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.8 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K2.5 does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Kimi K2.5 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K2.5 has 51.

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