# Claude 2.1 vs Gemma 3 12B

> Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 24.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/claude-2-1-vs-gemma-3-12b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 4

## Summary

- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude 2.1 scores higher in 1 category and Gemma 3 12B in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Gemma 3 12B leads 21.0 to 9.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 1.9% for Claude 2.1 and 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Google |
| Noometry Index | 24.9 | 31.8 |
| Rank | 340 | 255 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.15 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Claude 2.1: 25.8 (#322)
- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 17.4% |
| WeirdML | 7.1% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1281 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 30.4% |

## Reasoning

- Claude 2.1: 20.6 (#216)
- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 51% | 48.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.22 | 123.49 |
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1309 |
| LMCA | — | 4.5% |
| ForecastBench | 54.2 | — |

## Math

- Claude 2.1: 9.6 (#309)
- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.9% | 16.7% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1307 |

## Knowledge

- Claude 2.1: 15.5 (#287)
- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 33% | 39.5% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.4% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1248 |
| MMLU | 73.5% | — |

## Multimodal

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: —

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | — | 46.7% |

## Multilingual

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1318 |
| LMArena German | — | 1370 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1335 |

## Instruction Following

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1299 |

## Long Context

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1317 |

## Writing & Preference

- Claude 2.1: —
- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)

| Benchmark | Claude 2.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1334 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1126 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1334 |

## FAQ

### Is Claude 2.1 better than Gemma 3 12B?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 24.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Claude 2.1 or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?

Gemma 3 12B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 31.2 versus 25.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Claude 2.1 and Gemma 3 12B share?

4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude 2.1 has 7 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.