Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Granite 4.2 3b
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 10 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 4 categories and Granite 4.2 3b in 3 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 26.0 to 15.7.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 39.4 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | — |
| Max output | 8K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | — |
| Results tracked | 24 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 3b leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1361 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Granite 4.2 3b: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1306 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | — |
Math Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Granite 4.2 3b: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | — |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 3b leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1315 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Granite 4.2 3b: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1268 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1249 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1269 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | — |
Instruction Following Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1273 |
Long Context Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1291 |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1293 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1205 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1290 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Granite 4.2 3b?
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?
Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.0 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Granite 4.2 3b share?
10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.