Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 32× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
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Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 26.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max 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 | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 43.7 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1456 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 142.38 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
Math Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1446 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1455 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1429 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1463 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1428 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1478 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1462 |
Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1419 |
Long Context Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1438 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1446 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 32× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 Max?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3 Max share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.