Model comparison

Gemma 3 27B vs Gemma 4 31B IT

Gemma 4 31B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 31B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 26 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 27B Google

30.8

Rank #284 Confirmed

Gemma 4 31B IT Google

43.5

Rank #90 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 0 categories and Gemma 4 31B IT in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where Gemma 4 31B IT leads 42.3 to 22.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 22.5% for Gemma 3 27B and 73.3% for Gemma 4 31B IT.
  • Gemma 3 27B is cheaper at $0.08 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.09 / $0.34 for Gemma 4 31B IT.
  • Gemma 4 31B IT accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 27B and Gemma 4 31B IT specifications
Gemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
ProviderGoogleGoogle
Noometry Index30.843.5
Released2025-03-112026-04-02
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K262K
Max output8K33K
Input $ / M tokens$0.08$0.09
Output $ / M tokens$0.16$0.34
Results tracked4335

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 22.5 (#334), Gemma 4 31B IT: 42.3 (#108)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
SciCode21.2%43.4%
LMArena Coding13221459
Aider Polyglot4.9%—
LMArena WebDev—1366
WeirdML—52.3%
LiveBench Coding39.9%—
ALE-Bench—925.5

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 25.1 (#110), Gemma 4 31B IT: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard29.5%—

Reasoning Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 16.7 (#301), Gemma 4 31B IT: 27.2 (#122)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
Kagi LLM Benchmark40.4%63.5%
CritPt0%1.4%
Chess Puzzles0%5%
LMArena Hard Prompts13401448
DTBench52.5%82.7%
LMCA12.3%39.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index130.04142.74
NYT Connections (extended)—70.6%
Thematic Generalization—53%
LiveBench Reasoning43.8%—
LiveBench Data Analysis51.5%—
Surface Evolver Bench—30.6%
LiveBench50%—

Math Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.9 (#265), Gemma 4 31B IT: 43.2 (#81)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202522.5%73.3%
LMArena Math13121465
LiveBench Math55.4%—
MATH Level 574%—

Knowledge Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.5 (#261), Gemma 4 31B IT: 37.9 (#151)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
GPQA Diamond47.7%75.8%
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.4%7.4%
LMArena Expert13041465
SimpleQA Verified—10.4%
Confabulations40.3%—

Multimodal Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 32.6 (#100), Gemma 4 31B IT: 41.6 (#34)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
LMArena Vision11641277
GeoBench52%—
LMArena Document—1425

Multilingual Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 46.9 (#155), Gemma 4 31B IT: 53.8 (#57)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
LMArena Non-English13341431
LMArena Chinese13461476
LMArena French13681435
LMArena Russian13491460
LMArena Spanish13491444
LMArena German1362—
LMArena Japanese1287—
LMArena Korean1308—

Instruction Following Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 70.6 (#160), Gemma 4 31B IT: 75.5 (#61)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
LMArena Instruction Following13211433
LiveBench Instruction Following74.9%—

Long Context Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#293), Gemma 4 31B IT: 44.2 (#71)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
LMArena Longer Query13331446
Fiction.LiveBench33.3%—

Writing & Preference Gemma 4 31B IT leads

Gemma 3 27B: 52.5 (#168), Gemma 4 31B IT: 60.5 (#96)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGemma 4 31B IT
LMArena Text13581443
LMArena Creative Writing13461415
EQ-Bench Creative Writing12661368
LMArena Multi-Turn13451452
Short-Story Creative Writing79.9%—
EQ-Bench 4—1120
LiveBench Language34.6%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 27B better than Gemma 4 31B IT?

Gemma 4 31B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 31B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Gemma 4 31B IT?

Gemma 3 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Gemma 4 31B IT lists at $0.09 and $0.34.

Is Gemma 3 27B or Gemma 4 31B IT better for coding?

Gemma 4 31B IT scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.3 versus 22.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 4 31B IT does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Gemma 4 31B IT share?

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 4 31B IT has 35.

Related comparisons

Go deeper