# Gemma 3 12B vs Granite 4.0 Micro

> Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 3 12B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-granite-4-0-micro
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 3

## Summary

- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 3 categories and Granite 4.0 Micro in 2 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemma 3 12B leads 26.5 to 9.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 2.8% for Granite 4.0 Micro.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.05 / $0.15 for Gemma 3 12B.
- Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 28.8 |
| Rank | 255 | 312 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.017 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $0.11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: 18.5 (#261)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 0% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: 11.2 (#301)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 2.8% |
| Omni-MATH | — | 20.9% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#299)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 28.3% |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 39.5% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 30.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Granite 4.0 Micro: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | — |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: 70.0 (#164)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | — | 84.9% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#212)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| WildBench | — | 67% |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Granite 4.0 Micro?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 3 12B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Granite 4.0 Micro?

Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Gemma 3 12B lists at $0.05 and $0.15.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Granite 4.0 Micro share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.0 Micro has 8.