Noometry

Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs MiniMax M1

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

MiniMax M1 MiniMax

40.3

Rank #150 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax M1 in 8 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax M1 leads 37.5 to 22.3.
  • Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
  • MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
ProviderGoogleMiniMax
Noometry Index32.140.3
Released2025-03-122025-06-13
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K1M
Max output8K40K
Input $ / M tokens$0.05$0.55
Output $ / M tokens$0.15$2.20
Results tracked2418

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Coding12811359
SciCode17.4%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), MiniMax M1: —

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard30.4%—

Reasoning MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Hard Prompts13091339
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles0%—
DTBench48.8%—
LMCA4.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index123.5—

Math MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Math13071361
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202516.7%—

Knowledge MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Expert12481317
GPQA Diamond39.5%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate4.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, MiniMax M1: —

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
MindCube46.7%—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Non-English13181319
LMArena German13701350
LMArena Russian13351329
LMArena Chinese—1360
LMArena French—1370
LMArena Japanese—1217
LMArena Korean—1266
LMArena Spanish—1353

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Instruction Following12991312

Long Context MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Longer Query13171326
Fiction.LiveBench—69.4%

Writing & Preference MiniMax M1 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMiniMax M1
LMArena Text13341343
LMArena Creative Writing13311298
LMArena Multi-Turn13341335
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1126—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax M1?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.

Is Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and MiniMax M1 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.

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