# Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3.6 Plus

> Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.3 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-6-plus
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 56.1 to 26.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 93.3% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 47.3 |
| Rank | 255 | 54 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.50 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $3 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.6 (#125)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 40.7% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1467 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1461 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 670.15 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,115 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 28.5 (#89)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 2.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 17% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1449 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 81.9% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 33.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 147.67 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 60.3% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 12% |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 50.6 (#44)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 38.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#40)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 88.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1456 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 44.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- Qwen3.6 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.5 (#66)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1424 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1451 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1434 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1478 |
| LMArena French | — | 1454 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1381 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1432 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.2 (#70)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1425 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.1 (#48)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1440 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.4 (#78)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1405 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1438 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.3 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.6 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3.6 Plus share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.