Model comparison

Gemma 3 4B vs o4-mini

o4-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.6 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 39× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o4-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 4B Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

o4-mini OpenAI

41.6

Rank #132 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and o4-mini in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where o4-mini leads 43.6 to 11.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 7.5% for Gemma 3 4B and 81.7% for o4-mini.
  • Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.10 / $4.40 for o4-mini.
  • o4-mini accepts more context: 200K tokens versus 131K.
  • Gemma 3 4B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 4B and o4-mini specifications
Gemma 3 4Bo4-mini
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
Noometry Index28.141.6
Released2025-03-122025-04-16
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K200K
Max output4K100K
Input $ / M tokens$0.04$1.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.08$4.40
Results tracked2260

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

Category by category

Coding o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215), o4-mini: 40.9 (#127)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Coding12301368
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—45%
Aider Polyglot—72%
GSO—3.6%
WeirdML—52.6%
CadEval—62%
ALE-Bench—826.17
AlgoTune—1.72

Agentic & Tool Use o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142), o4-mini: 32.6 (#61)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard19.6%53.2%
GDPval—25.3%
METR Time Horizons—63.9%

Reasoning o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335), o4-mini: 24.6 (#162)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
Kagi LLM Benchmark25.2%67.6%
Chess Puzzles0%26%
LMArena Hard Prompts12531351
DTBench50.9%77.6%
LMCA2.8%26.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index116.02145.64
ARC-AGI-2—6.1%
SimpleBench—38.7%
ARC-AGI-1—58.7%
CritPt—0.6%
EnigmaEval—9.2%
Mystery Game Puzzles—5%
ForecastBench—61.8

Math o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292), o4-mini: 40.8 (#89)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20257.5%81.7%
LMArena Math12391389
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—36.1%
FrontierMath Tier 4—4.9%
Omni-MATH—72%
MATH Level 5—97.8%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—24.8%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—6.3%

Knowledge o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299), o4-mini: 43.6 (#91)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
GPQA Diamond23.2%79.6%
Vectara Hallucination Rate6.4%18.6%
LMArena Expert12231343
Humanity's Last Exam—18.1%
SimpleQA Verified—19.6%
MMLU-Pro—82%
Confabulations—15.8%
GPQA (HELM)—73.5%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 4B: —, o4-mini: 40.2 (#49)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Vision—1194
GeoBench—64%
VPCT—57.5%

Multilingual o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194), o4-mini: 47.0 (#154)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Non-English12731337
LMArena German12811336
LMArena Russian12941334
LMArena Chinese—1354
LMArena French—1364
LMArena Japanese—1308
LMArena Korean—1312
LMArena Spanish—1347

Instruction Following o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225), o4-mini: 75.2 (#68)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Instruction Following12391321
IFEval—92.8%

Long Context o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194), o4-mini: 45.5 (#33)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Longer Query12731315
Fiction.LiveBench—77.8%

Writing & Preference o4-mini leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239), o4-mini: 54.0 (#152)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 4Bo4-mini
LMArena Text12911353
LMArena Creative Writing12711294
LMArena Multi-Turn12551350
Short-Story Creative Writing—75%
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1068—
WildBench—85.4%

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 4B better than o4-mini?

o4-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.6 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 39× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o4-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or o4-mini?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; o4-mini lists at $1.10 and $4.40.

Is Gemma 3 4B or o4-mini better for coding?

o4-mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.9 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

o4-mini does, with 200K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and o4-mini share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and o4-mini has 60.

Related comparisons

Go deeper