Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3.5 Plus
Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 7 shared benchmarks.
Google
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 7 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Plus in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.5 Plus leads 49.6 to 22.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 86.7% for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.40 for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Qwen3.5 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 | Qwen3.5 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 42.9 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2026-02-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.40 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $2.40 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 15 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 621.92 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 0.54 |
Reasoning Qwen3.5 Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen3.5 Plus: 32.8 (#74)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 22% |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 80.5% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 36.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 146.78 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 17% |
Math Qwen3.5 Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen3.5 Plus: 49.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 86.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 21% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 2.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3.5 Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen3.5 Plus: 46.0 (#83)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 84.8% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | 10.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 25.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | — |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | — |
Long Context Qwen3.5 Plus leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen3.5 Plus: 43.0 (#113)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | — | 19.8% |
| CL-bench Life | — | 12.4% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen3.5 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3.5 Plus?
Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.5 Plus?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 Plus lists at $0.40 and $2.40.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3.5 Plus share?
7 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Plus has 15.