# Gemma 3 12B vs Grok-2 (Dec 2024)

> Grok-2 (Dec 2024) is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.4 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-grok-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 4 categories and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) in 4 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Grok-2 (Dec 2024) leads 29.8 to 26.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is DTBench: 48.8% for Gemma 3 12B and 65.2% for Grok-2 (Dec 2024).
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 33.4 |
| Rank | 255 | 233 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 32.9 (#254)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1288 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| WeirdML | — | 22.2% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 46.4% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 16.4 (#294)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1272 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 65.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 130.48 |
| SimpleBench | — | 22.7% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 54.8% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 54.5% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| LiveBench | — | 54.3% |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 19.6 (#278)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 11.5% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1283 |
| LiveBench Math | — | 54.9% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 63.5% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 0.7% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 29.8 (#225)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 53.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1254 |
| Confabulations | — | 20.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 43.3 (#183)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1282 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1287 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1286 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1289 |
| LMArena French | — | 1317 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1244 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1237 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1281 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 67.1 (#197)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1270 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 69.6% |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 38.7 (#186)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1276 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 48.8 (#192)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1305 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1284 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1290 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 63.6% |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 45.6% |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Grok-2 (Dec 2024)?

Grok-2 (Dec 2024) is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.4 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Grok-2 (Dec 2024) better for coding?

Grok-2 (Dec 2024) scores higher on coding benchmarks: 32.9 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) has 34.