# Gemma 2 9B vs Gemma 3 4B

> Gemma 3 4B is the stronger model overall, scoring 28.1 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-gemma-3-4b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 1 category and Gemma 3 4B in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 3 4B leads 42.0 to 32.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 0.6% for Gemma 2 9B and 7.5% for Gemma 3 4B.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 28.1 |
| Rank | 341 | 326 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.04 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1230 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 19.6% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1253 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | 116.02 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 25.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| DTBench | — | 50.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| LMCA | — | 2.8% |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | 7.5% |
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1239 |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305)
- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | 23.2% |
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1223 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 6.4% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1273 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1281 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1294 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | — |
| LMArena French | 1190 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1239 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1273 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Gemma 3 4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1291 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1271 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | 1068 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1255 |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Gemma 3 4B?

Gemma 3 4B is the stronger model overall, scoring 28.1 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Gemma 3 4B better for coding?

Gemma 3 4B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.9 versus 29.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Gemma 3 4B share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 4B has 22.