# Gemma 3 12B vs Muse Spark 1.2

> Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-muse-spark-1-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Muse Spark 1.2 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Muse Spark 1.2 leads 50.4 to 15.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is DTBench: 48.8% for Gemma 3 12B and 94.7% for Muse Spark 1.2.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2.
- Muse Spark 1.2 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 49.8 |
| Rank | 255 | 44 |
| Context | 131K | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.25 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $4.25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 48.6 (#49)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 56.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1497 |
| DeepSWE | — | 54.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1532 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 12% |
| WeirdML | — | 60.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 29.5 (#77)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 36.4% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| GDP.pdf | — | 16% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 50.4 (#32)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 17.7% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1490 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 94.7% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 48.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 155.18 |
| SimpleBench | — | 74.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 79.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 43.8 (#68)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 43% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 53.9 (#49)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1485 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 60.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Muse Spark 1.2: 42.6 (#24)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1304 |
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 57.4 (#10)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1479 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1494 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1519 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 77.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1466 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 45.4 (#35)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1483 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 72.6 (#14)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1486 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1444 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | 1840 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1504 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Muse Spark 1.2?

Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Muse Spark 1.2?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.2 lists at $1.25 and $4.25.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Muse Spark 1.2 better for coding?

Muse Spark 1.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Muse Spark 1.2 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Muse Spark 1.2 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Muse Spark 1.2 has 28.