# Gemma 3 4B vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

> Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.7 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen2.5 32B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-4b-vs-qwen2-5-32b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 4

## Summary

- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen2.5 32B Instruct leads 24.9 to 11.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 23.2% for Gemma 3 4B and 46.1% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 29.7 |
| Rank | 320 | 291 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $0.70 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $2.80 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 4B: 35.3 (#214)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.1 (#165)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45% |
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 52.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 4B: 20.7 (#134)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 4B: 12.7 (#330)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 18.5 (#262)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 0% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | 128.52 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 2.8% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 4B: 15.8 (#286)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 15.3 (#289)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | 7.4% |
| LMArena Math | 1239 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 56.1% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#294)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#259)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | 46.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.7 (#189)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | — |
| LMArena German | 1281 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 4B: 65.4 (#219)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 4B: 38.6 (#189)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1274 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.2 (#234)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1270 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 4B better than Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.7 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen2.5 32B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen2.5 32B Instruct lists at $0.70 and $2.80.

### Is Gemma 3 4B or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better for coding?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.1 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct share?

4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7.
