Model comparison
Gemma 3 4B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.6 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 35B-A3B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 6 shared benchmarks.
Google
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 6 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads 51.3 to 11.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 7.5% for Gemma 3 4B and 86.7% for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $1.49 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 28.1 | 37.6 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2026-04-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 4K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.04 | $0.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.08 | $1.49 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 14 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 37.2 (#196)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 35.8% |
| WeirdML | — | 34.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 22.1 (#134)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 23% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 28.0 (#109)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 26% |
| DTBench | 50.9% | 73.9% |
| LMCA | 2.8% | 29.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | 143.93 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 41.6% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 22% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 44.4% |
Math Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 38.9 (#121)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | 86.7% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 20.4% |
| LMArena Math | 1239 | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 51.3 (#68)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | 84.8% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | — |
| LMArena German | 1281 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1273 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1271 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 4B better than Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.6 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 35B-A3B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B lists at $0.25 and $1.49.
Is Gemma 3 4B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B better for coding?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.2 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B share?
6 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has 14.