# Gemma 3 12B vs Grok 4.3

> Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.6 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-grok-4-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Grok 4.3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Grok 4.3 leads 52.5 to 26.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 93.3% for Grok 4.3.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $2.50 for Grok 4.3.
- Grok 4.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 43.6 |
| Rank | 255 | 80 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.25 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Grok 4.3: 41.3 (#117)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1415 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1357 |
| WeirdML | — | 49.9% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 944.17 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Grok 4.3: 27.6 (#93)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| GDP.pdf | — | 8% |
| LMArena Search | — | 1165 |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 35.26 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Grok 4.3: 34.9 (#60)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 8% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 25% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1397 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 90.7% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 38.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 149.13 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 55.2% |
| ForecastBench | — | 60.3 |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Grok 4.3: 45.8 (#60)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1388 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 42.8% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 14.6% |
| ProofBench | — | 11% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Grok 4.3: 52.5 (#57)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 88.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1385 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 33.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Grok 4.3: 31.6 (#96)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1231 |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | — | 0% |
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Grok 4.3: 50.7 (#114)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1385 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1395 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1399 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1423 |
| LMArena French | — | 1412 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1379 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1357 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1402 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Grok 4.3: 72.3 (#135)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1366 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Grok 4.3: 42.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1393 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Grok 4.3: 58.6 (#112)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Grok 4.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1397 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1380 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1406 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1075 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.6 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Grok 4.3?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Grok 4.3 lists at $1.25 and $2.50.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Grok 4.3 better for coding?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.3 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Grok 4.3 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Grok 4.3 has 40.