# Gemma 3 12B vs MiniMax-M2

> MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 7.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M2 leads 34.6 to 21.0.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 36.9 |
| Rank | 255 | 201 |
| Context | 131K | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1370 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1297 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- MiniMax-M2: 24.9 (#102)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- MiniMax-M2: 18.6 (#256)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1357 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 57.8% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 14.8% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- MiniMax-M2: 34.6 (#158)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1350 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- MiniMax-M2: 36.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1336 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- MiniMax-M2: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- MiniMax-M2: 45.6 (#165)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1314 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1332 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1367 |
| LMArena French | — | 1336 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1326 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- MiniMax-M2: 70.4 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1329 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#148)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1332 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- MiniMax-M2: 53.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1288 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1362 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 7.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax-M2?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.1 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and MiniMax-M2 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.