# Gemma 3 12B vs Palm 2

> Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-palm-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 9

## Summary

- They share 9 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 5 categories and Palm 2 in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in multilingual, where Gemma 3 12B leads 45.9 to 21.1.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 29.4 |
| Rank | 255 | 296 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Palm 2: 28.5 (#306)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 995 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Palm 2: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Palm 2: 18.2 (#270)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1005 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Palm 2: 28.4 (#229)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1049 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Palm 2: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Palm 2: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Palm 2: 21.1 (#290)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 916 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 887 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Palm 2: 51.3 (#291)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1010 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Palm 2: 30.7 (#280)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1010 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Palm 2: 25.7 (#299)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Palm 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1027 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 991 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 994 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Palm 2?

Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Palm 2 better for coding?

Gemma 3 12B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 31.2 versus 28.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Palm 2 share?

9 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Palm 2 has 10.