# Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral

> Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 5 categories and Mistral in 3 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in instruction following, where Gemma 3 12B leads 68.6 to 52.6.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 29.9 |
| Rank | 262 | 303 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)
- Mistral: 33.8 (#250)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1162 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

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

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

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)
- Mistral: 22.2 (#200)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1149 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)
- Mistral: 22.3 (#278)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1180 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | — | 7.2% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)
- Mistral: 16.6 (#288)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1125 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 27.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 30.3% |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Mistral: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)
- Mistral: 32.8 (#254)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1129 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1155 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1168 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1109 |
| LMArena French | — | 1180 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1013 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1032 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1143 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)
- Mistral: 52.6 (#288)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1152 |
| IFEval | — | 56.8% |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)
- Mistral: 35.0 (#245)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1153 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)
- Mistral: 37.0 (#260)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1165 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1158 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1147 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
| WildBench | — | 66% |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Mistral?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.1 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Mistral better for coding?

Mistral scores higher on coding benchmarks: 33.8 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

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

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Mistral has 22.