Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen Max
Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 37× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.
Google
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen Max in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen Max leads 25.1 to 15.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 39.5% for Gemma 3 12B and 56.1% for Qwen Max.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 34.7 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2024-04-03 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 33K |
| Max output | 8K | 8K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $1.60 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $6.40 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 23 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen Max: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Qwen Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1269 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
Math Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1275 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |
Knowledge Qwen Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1248 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen Max: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1263 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1254 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1274 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1254 |
| LMArena French | — | 1330 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1142 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1290 |
Instruction Following Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1262 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1277 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen Max?
Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 37× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen Max?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen Max better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (31.7 vs 30.7); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen Max share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.