Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs MiniMax-M2
MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 7.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
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MiniMaxSummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M2 leads 37.3 to 22.3.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 37.4 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2025-10-27 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 205K |
| Max output | 8K | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 21 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1370 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1297 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |
Reasoning MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1357 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 57.8% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 14.8% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
Math MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1352 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, MiniMax-M2: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1313 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1355 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1331 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1366 |
| LMArena French | — | 1335 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1326 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1328 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1331 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1286 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1361 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than MiniMax-M2?
MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 7.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax-M2?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.
Is Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?
MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.3 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and MiniMax-M2 share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.