Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 40× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
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Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 34.9 to 21.0.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 37.7 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $1.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $7.50 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 25 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1413 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |
Math Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1364 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1345 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1324 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1367 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1356 |
| LMArena French | — | 1394 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1307 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1360 |
Instruction Following Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1356 |
Long Context Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1379 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1365 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 40× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.2 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.