# Gemma 3 12B vs Magistral Small

> Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-magistral-small
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 7

## Summary

- They share 7 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Magistral Small in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemma 3 12B leads 15.7 to 6.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 17.4% for Gemma 3 12B and 35.2% for Magistral Small.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- Gemma 3 12B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 30.2 |
| Rank | 262 | 296 |
| Context | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.50 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $1.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)
- Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 35.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)
- Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 3% |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 61.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 133.19 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 0% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 6.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)
- Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 30% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)
- Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 56.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | — |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Magistral Small?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Magistral Small?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Magistral Small better for coding?

Magistral Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.4 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 12B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Magistral Small share?

7 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.