Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Sonar
Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Sonar's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
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PerplexitySummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Sonar leads 33.7 to 22.3.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Perplexity | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 38.5 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2024-01-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 128K |
| Max output | 8K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $1 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 7 |
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Category by category
Coding Sonar leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Sonar leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |
Math Sonar leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |
Knowledge Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | — |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | — |
Instruction Following Sonar leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | — |
Writing & Preference Sonar leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Sonar?
Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Sonar's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Sonar?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Sonar lists at $1 and $1.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Sonar better for coding?
Sonar scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.7 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Sonar share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.