# Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3 32B

> Qwen3 32B is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 16× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 32B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-32b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 22

## Summary

- They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 32B in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3 32B leads 37.9 to 21.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 66.9% for Qwen3 32B.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen3 32B.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 38.8 |
| Rank | 255 | 166 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.70 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $2.80 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Qwen3 32B: 37.3 (#184)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 35.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1358 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 40% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Qwen3 32B: 32.3 (#58)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | 48.7% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Qwen3 32B: 19.6 (#233)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1335 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 67.5% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 17.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 138.51 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 54.9% |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Qwen3 32B: 37.9 (#89)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 66.9% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1399 |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Qwen3 32B: 40.0 (#112)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 65.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | 5.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1362 |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Qwen3 32B: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Qwen3 32B: 45.8 (#162)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1317 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1341 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1311 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1357 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Qwen3 32B: 69.1 (#174)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1305 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Qwen3 32B: 43.7 (#83)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1327 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 74.2% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Qwen3 32B: 53.1 (#158)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3 32B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1297 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3 32B?

Qwen3 32B is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 16× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 32B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 32B?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3 32B lists at $0.70 and $2.80.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 32B better for coding?

Qwen3 32B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.3 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3 32B share?

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 32B has 26.