# Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-5.4 mini

> GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-gpt-5-4-mini
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 22

## Summary

- They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and GPT-5.4 mini in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where GPT-5.4 mini leads 51.4 to 26.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 88.9% for GPT-5.4 mini.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $4.50 for GPT-5.4 mini.
- GPT-5.4 mini accepts more context: 400K tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | OpenAI |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 44.8 |
| Rank | 255 | 69 |
| Context | 131K | 400K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.75 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $4.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 45.0 (#67)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 49.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1438 |
| FrontierCode | — | 27% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1397 |
| WeirdML | — | 60.3% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 1,189 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 29.6 (#74)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| DeepResearch Bench | — | 36.3% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 30.3 (#77)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 10% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 24% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1424 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 80% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 40.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 148.83 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 18.9% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 37.9% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 61.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 63.7% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 61.7% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 11% |
| ForecastBench | — | 57 |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 45.4 (#63)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 88.9% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1418 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 51.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 9.8% |
| ProofBench | — | 21% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 28.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 2.1% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 51.4 (#62)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 86.9% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | 5.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1434 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 29.4% |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- GPT-5.4 mini: 39.0 (#51)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1245 |
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 52.1 (#94)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1405 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1407 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1417 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1446 |
| LMArena French | — | 1440 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1375 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1369 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1403 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 74.3 (#99)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1405 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 42.9 (#107)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1407 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- GPT-5.4 mini: 64.2 (#56)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1411 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1370 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | 1665 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1429 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than GPT-5.4 mini?

GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; GPT-5.4 mini lists at $0.75 and $4.50.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or GPT-5.4 mini better for coding?

GPT-5.4 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 45.0 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.4 mini does, with 400K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and GPT-5.4 mini share?

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and GPT-5.4 mini has 46.
