Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 14× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Large 4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
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Mistral AISummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Mistral Large 4 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Mistral Large 4 leads 40.4 to 22.3.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.68 / $2.09 for Mistral Large 4.
- Mistral Large 4 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 43.1 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2026-10-06 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1.05M |
| Max output | 8K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.68 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $2.09 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 15 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Mistral Large 4: 48.6 (#57)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1475 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1541 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Mistral Large 4: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Mistral Large 4: 22.5 (#192)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1444 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 27.4% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
Math Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Mistral Large 4: 40.4 (#91)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1488 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
Knowledge Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Mistral Large 4: 36.6 (#166)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1447 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 20% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Mistral Large 4: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Mistral Large 4: 52.6 (#82)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1415 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1414 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1491 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
Instruction Following Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Mistral Large 4: 75.0 (#76)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1424 |
Long Context Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Mistral Large 4: 43.6 (#89)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1429 |
Writing & Preference Mistral Large 4 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Mistral Large 4: 60.4 (#97)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1427 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1361 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1424 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Mistral Large 4?
Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 14× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Large 4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Mistral Large 4?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 lists at $0.68 and $2.09.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Mistral Large 4 better for coding?
Mistral Large 4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Large 4 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Mistral Large 4 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 4 has 15.