Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
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NVIDIASummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 2 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 6 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 34.7 to 21.0.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.16 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 39.3 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $0.16 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1370 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1335 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1355 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1354 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1292 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1280 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1257 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1356 |
| LMArena French | — | 1369 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1233 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1321 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1317 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1312 |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1327 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning lists at $0.06 and $0.16.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.6 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.