# Gemma 1.1 2b IT vs Gemma 2 9B

> Gemma 1.1 2b IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 28.8 to 25.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-1-1-2b-it-vs-gemma-2-9b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 14

## Summary

- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 1.1 2b IT scores higher in 4 categories and Gemma 2 9B in 4 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Gemma 1.1 2b IT leads 28.3 to 9.3.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 28.8 | 25.7 |
| Rank | 313 | 334 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 29.6 (#294)
- Gemma 2 9B: 29.0 (#299)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1034 | 1174 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 34.7% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 22.5% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 40.6% |
| HumanEval+ | 17.7% | — |
| MBPP+ | 23.3% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 18.2 (#268)
- Gemma 2 9B: 15.3 (#306)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1005 | 1172 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.2% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 36.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 119.78 |
| LiveBench | — | 28.7% |
| PIQA | — | 83.7% |

## Math

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 28.3 (#230)
- Gemma 2 9B: 9.3 (#312)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1047 | 1183 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 0.6% |
| LiveBench Math | — | 19.8% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 21% |
| GSM8K | — | 84.9% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 26.0 (#255)
- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#300)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 970 | 1147 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 27.5% |
| BoolQ | — | 85.7% |
| MMLU | — | 72.1% |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 24.7 (#284)
- Gemma 2 9B: 36.8 (#233)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 988 | 1188 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1011 | 1185 |
| LMArena German | 944 | 1186 |
| LMArena Korean | 899 | 1137 |
| LMArena Russian | 990 | 1200 |
| LMArena French | — | 1189 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1144 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1200 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 50.1 (#294)
- Gemma 2 9B: 57.8 (#264)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 992 | 1178 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 52.6% |

## Long Context

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 30.5 (#281)
- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1003 | 1197 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 1.1 2b IT: 25.3 (#301)
- Gemma 2 9B: 32.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Gemma 1.1 2b IT | Gemma 2 9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1022 | 1207 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 998 | 1206 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 958 | 1193 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 841 |
| LiveBench Language | — | 25.5% |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 1.1 2b IT better than Gemma 2 9B?

Gemma 1.1 2b IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 28.8 to 25.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 1.1 2b IT or Gemma 2 9B better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (29.6 vs 29.0); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 1.1 2b IT and Gemma 2 9B share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 1.1 2b IT has 16 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 2 9B has 35.