# Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemma 3 12B

> Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-vs-gemma-3-12b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 21

## Summary

- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash leads 64.7 to 15.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 98.9% for Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 59.5 | 31.8 |
| Rank | 13 | 255 |
| Context | 1.05M | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 56.4 (#17)
- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 56.6% | 17.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1512 | 1281 |
| DeepSWE | 73.8% | — |
| FrontierCode | 41.2% | — |
| CursorBench | 39.6% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1581 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 19.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,270 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.3 (#22)
- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 30.4% |
| GDP.pdf | 23.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,094 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 64.7 (#13)
- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 18.3% | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | 61% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1506 | 1309 |
| DTBench | 95.7% | 48.8% |
| LMCA | 52.9% | 4.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.13 | 123.49 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 97.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 47% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 76.9% | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 65.2 (#22)
- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 98.9% | 16.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1528 | 1307 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 68.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| ProofBench | 48% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 74.9 (#2)
- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.4% | 39.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1529 | 1248 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 44.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.4% |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.9 (#33)
- Gemma 3 12B: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1312 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 38.6% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 31.7% | — |
| MindCube | — | 46.7% |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 57.9 (#5)
- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1486 | 1318 |
| LMArena German | 1470 | 1370 |
| LMArena Russian | 1507 | 1335 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1547 | — |
| LMArena French | 1502 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1505 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1479 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1492 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 78.2 (#11)
- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1489 | 1299 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 46.2 (#23)
- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1506 | 1317 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 72.1 (#16)
- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1494 | 1334 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1485 | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1748 | 1126 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1503 | 1334 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Gemma 3 12B?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemma 3 12B better for coding?

Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 56.4 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.8 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemma 3 12B share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.8 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 12B has 24.