# Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemma 3 12B

> Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 53× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-vs-gemma-3-12b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 9 categories and Gemma 3 12B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 22.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 100% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Google |
| Noometry Index | 61.9 | 32.1 |
| Rank | 10 | 262 |
| Context | 1M | 131K |
| Input $/M | $2 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $10 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6)
- Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 61% | 17.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1513 | 1281 |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16)
- Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 30.4% |

## Reasoning

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28)
- Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 31.4% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1495 | 1309 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 165.03 | 123.5 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80.5% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
| DTBench | — | 48.8% |
| LMCA | — | 4.5% |

## Math

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6)
- Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | 16.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1510 | 1307 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 2.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12)
- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | 39.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1540 | 1248 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.4% |

## Multimodal

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6)
- Gemma 3 12B: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1289 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
| MindCube | — | 46.7% |

## Multilingual

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30)
- Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | 1318 |
| LMArena Russian | 1451 | 1335 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1522 | — |
| LMArena German | — | 1370 |

## Instruction Following

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11)
- Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1495 | 1299 |

## Long Context

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28)
- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1498 | 1317 |

## Writing & Preference

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40)
- Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1334 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1331 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1474 | 1334 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1126 |

## FAQ

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Gemma 3 12B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 53× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemma 3 12B?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemma 3 12B share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.