Compare / Gemma 4 12B vs Gemma 3 12B
Gemma 4 12B vs Gemma 3 12B
Updated November 2026
Verdict
Gemma 4 12B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 56.9 vs 28.4. On the 3 benchmarks both labs report, Gemma 4 12B wins 3 and Gemma 3 12B wins 0. Both need about 9 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization. Only Gemma 3 12B has a hosted API on OpenRouter ($0.060 per million tokens); the other has to be self-hosted.
Pick Gemma 4 12B if…
- you want the strongest model overall
- you mostly write code
- you work with long documents
- you need a permissive license (Apache-2.0)
- you want the more widely used model (more quantized builds and community support)
Pick Gemma 3 12B if…
- you want a hosted API rather than running it yourself
Specifications
| Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 3 12B | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 56.9 (likely 53–61) | 28.4 (likely 22–36) |
| Lab | Google · United States | Google · United States |
| Released | 2026-06-03 | 2025-03-12 |
| Parameters | 11.9B (dense) | 12.2B (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~8.9 GB | ~9 GB |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Input | text, image, audio | text, image |
| Reasoning | Hybrid (thinking on/off) | No thinking |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Gemma |
| API price / 1M tokens | Self-host only | $0.060 ($0.040 in, $0.12 out) |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | 1.8M | 359.7K |
Benchmarks
Higher is better. Bold marks the winner where both labs report a score. ≈ marks the index model's estimate for a score that wasn't reported, ✓ an independent measurement and * a score measured by another lab.
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | 77.2 | 60.6 |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 78.8 | 40.9 |
| Humanity's Last Exam Reasoning | 5.2 | ≈ 2 |
| AIME Math | 77.5 | ≈ 30 |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | 72.0 | 24.6 |
| τ²-Bench Agentic | 69.0 | — |
| MMMU-Pro Vision | 69.1 | — |
Scores are mostly reported by each lab with its own settings, so small gaps are noise. See the methodology. Open in the interactive comparison to add more models.
Questions
Which is better, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 3 12B?
Gemma 4 12B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 56.9 vs 28.4. On the 3 benchmarks both labs report, Gemma 4 12B wins 3 and Gemma 3 12B wins 0.
Which is cheaper to run?
Only Gemma 3 12B has a hosted API on OpenRouter ($0.060 per million tokens); the other has to be self-hosted. Both need about 9 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization.
Which has the longer context window?
Gemma 4 12B has the longer context window: 256K tokens against 128K.
Can I use Gemma 4 12B and Gemma 3 12B commercially?
Gemma 4 12B is released under Apache-2.0 and Gemma 3 12B under Gemma. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.