Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen Plus
Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 8.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
Google
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen Plus in 7 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen Plus leads 28.4 to 15.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is DTBench: 48.8% for Gemma 3 12B and 81.1% for Qwen Plus.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $1.20 for Qwen Plus.
- Qwen Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 37.1 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2024-01-25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 8K | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.40 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 20 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1328 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Qwen Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1317 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 81.1% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 24% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 63.3% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
Math Qwen Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 17.8% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1326 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 65.3% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1.7% |
Knowledge Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 48.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1328 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1310 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1323 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1347 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1251 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1303 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1324 |
Writing & Preference Qwen Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1326 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1293 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1336 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen Plus?
Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 8.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen Plus?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen Plus lists at $0.40 and $1.20.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen Plus better for coding?
Qwen Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.9 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen Plus share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Plus has 20.