# Gemma 2 9B vs Gemma 3 27B

> Gemma 3 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-gemma-3-27b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 29

## Summary

- They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 2 categories and Gemma 3 27B in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 3 27B leads 52.5 to 32.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is MATH Level 5: 21% for Gemma 2 9B and 74% for Gemma 3 27B.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 30.8 |
| Rank | 341 | 284 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.08 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.16 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Gemma 3 27B: 22.5 (#334)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | 39.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1322 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 4.9% |
| SciCode | — | 21.2% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Gemma 3 27B: 25.1 (#110)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 29.5% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Gemma 3 27B: 16.7 (#301)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | 43.8% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1340 |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | 51.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | 130.04 |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | 50% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 40.4% |
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| DTBench | — | 52.5% |
| LMCA | — | 12.3% |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Gemma 3 27B: 25.9 (#265)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | 22.5% |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | 55.4% |
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1312 |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | 74% |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305)
- Gemma 3 27B: 25.5 (#261)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | 47.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1304 |
| Confabulations | — | 40.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 7.4% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Gemma 3 27B: 32.6 (#100)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1164 |
| GeoBench | — | 52% |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Gemma 3 27B: 46.9 (#155)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1334 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1346 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | 1368 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1362 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | 1308 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1349 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | 1349 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Gemma 3 27B: 70.6 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | 74.9% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1321 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#293)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1333 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 33.3% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Gemma 3 27B: 52.5 (#168)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1358 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1346 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | 1266 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1345 |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | 34.6% |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 79.9% |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Gemma 3 27B?

Gemma 3 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Gemma 3 27B better for coding?

Gemma 2 9B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 29.4 versus 22.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Gemma 3 27B share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 27B has 43.