Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral Nemo

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 26.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 5 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Mistral Nemo Mistral AI

26.4

Rank #337 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 5 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Nemo in 2 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 3 12B leads 47.5 to 28.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 39.5% for Gemma 3 12B and 29.9% for Mistral Nemo.
  • Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.15 / $0.15 for Mistral Nemo.
  • Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Mistral Nemo specifications
Gemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
ProviderGoogleMistral AI
Noometry Index32.126.4
Released2025-03-122024-07-01
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K128K
Max output8K128K
Input $ / M tokens$0.05$0.15
Output $ / M tokens$0.15$0.15
Results tracked2410

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Category by category

Coding Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Mistral Nemo: —

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
SciCode17.4%—
LMArena Coding1281—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Mistral Nemo: 23.5 (#125)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard30.4%27.6%
BALROG—17.6%

Reasoning Mistral Nemo leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Mistral Nemo: 20.7 (#232)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
DTBench48.8%48.6%
Epoch Capabilities Index123.5118.68
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles0%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1309—
LMCA4.5%—
PIQA—83.5%

Math Mistral Nemo leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Mistral Nemo: 25.5 (#268)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202516.7%—
LMArena Math1307—
MATH Level 5—10.8%
GSM8K—84.2%

Knowledge Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Mistral Nemo: 12.3 (#298)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
GPQA Diamond39.5%29.9%
Vectara Hallucination Rate4.4%—
LMArena Expert1248—
BoolQ—82.5%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Mistral Nemo: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
MindCube46.7%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Mistral Nemo: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
LMArena Non-English1318—
LMArena German1370—
LMArena Russian1335—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Mistral Nemo: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
LMArena Instruction Following1299—

Long Context Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Mistral Nemo: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
LMArena Longer Query1317—

Writing & Preference Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Mistral Nemo: 28.5 (#296)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 12BMistral Nemo
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1126881
LMArena Text1334—
LMArena Creative Writing1331—
LMArena Multi-Turn1334—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Mistral Nemo?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 26.4 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Mistral Nemo?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Mistral Nemo lists at $0.15 and $0.15.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Mistral Nemo share?

5 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Nemo has 10.

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