Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 39× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Alibaba (Qwen)

51.5

Rank #43 Confirmed

Summary

They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 54.1 to 22.3.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3.6 Max Preview specifications
	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Provider	Google	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	32.1	51.5
Released	2025-03-12	2026-04-20
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	131K	262K
Max output	8K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$1.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$7.80
Results tracked	24	29

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Coding	1281	1471
SWE-bench Verified	—	76.7%
LMArena WebDev	—	1482
SciCode	17.4%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	30.4%	—
Vending-Bench 2	—	4,254

Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Chess Puzzles	0%	20%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1309	1457
DTBench	48.8%	87.2%
LMCA	4.5%	42.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	123.5	149.24
SimpleBench	—	63%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	74.1%
CritPt	0%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	19%

Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	16.7%	91.1%
LMArena Math	1307	1465
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)	—	23.1%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)	—	4.2%

Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
GPQA Diamond	39.5%	87.4%
LMArena Expert	1248	1478
SimpleQA Verified	—	52%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	4.4%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
MindCube	46.7%	—

Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Non-English	1318	1437
LMArena Russian	1335	1445
LMArena Chinese	—	1487
LMArena French	—	1449
LMArena German	1370	—
LMArena Spanish	—	1454

Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Instruction Following	1299	1438

Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Longer Query	1317	1457

Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Text	1334	1447
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	1435
LMArena Multi-Turn	1334	1456
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1126	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.