# Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3.5-Flash

> Qwen3.5-Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5-Flash in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.5-Flash leads 33.7 to 15.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 84.4% for Qwen3.5-Flash.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.40 for Qwen3.5-Flash.
- Qwen3.5-Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 42.5 |
| Rank | 262 | 112 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $0.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 34.2 (#242)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1412 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1244 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 221.8 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 462.69 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.7 (#72)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 21% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1403 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 82.9% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 29.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 143.98 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 20% |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 37.4 (#158)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 84.4% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1407 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 6.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 0% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#93)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 82.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | 10.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1407 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 20.3% |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Qwen3.5-Flash: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.5 (#121)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1385 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1390 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1379 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1446 |
| LMArena French | — | 1412 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1368 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1344 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1400 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.6 (#139)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1374 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#124)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1392 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209)
- Qwen3.5-Flash: 57.9 (#122)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1397 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1343 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1393 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5-Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.40.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.5-Flash better for coding?

Qwen3.5-Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.2 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5-Flash does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3.5-Flash share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-Flash has 32.