# Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemma 3 12B

> Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-6-flash-vs-gemma-3-12b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 21

## Summary

- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Gemma 3 12B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.9 to 15.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 94.2% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 31.8 |
| Rank | 30 | 255 |
| Context | 1.05M | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 49.6 (#45)
- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 52.7% | 17.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1492 | 1281 |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1536 | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.4 (#56)
- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 30.4% |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.9 (#20)
- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 10.6% | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1486 | 1309 |
| DTBench | 95.5% | 48.8% |
| LMCA | 44.9% | 4.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.36 | 123.49 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.0 (#33)
- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | 16.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1504 | 1307 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#7)
- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | 39.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1489 | 1248 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.4% |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.7 (#55)
- Gemma 3 12B: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1297 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |
| MindCube | — | 46.7% |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.8 (#17)
- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1470 | 1318 |
| LMArena German | 1478 | 1370 |
| LMArena Russian | 1490 | 1335 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1530 | — |
| LMArena French | 1501 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1477 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1435 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1477 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.2 (#27)
- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1467 | 1299 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#47)
- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1475 | 1317 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.3 (#26)
- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1478 | 1334 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1464 | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | 1126 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1334 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Gemma 3 12B?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.6 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemma 3 12B share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.