Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 40× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 20 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.9

Rank #21 Confirmed

Summary

They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Grok 4.6 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.6 leads 61.4 to 15.7.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 99.2% for Grok 4.6.
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.6.
Grok 4.6 accepts more context: 500K tokens versus 131K.
Gemma 3 12B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Grok 4.6 specifications
	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
Provider	Google	xAI
Noometry Index	32.1	56.9
Released	2025-03-12	2026-08-12
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	131K	500K
Max output	8K	500K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$2
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$6
Results tracked	24	49

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Grok 4.6: 58.5 (#16)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
SciCode	17.4%	56.5%
LMArena Coding	1281	1465
DeepSWE	—	67.5%
FrontierCode	—	48%
CursorBench	—	41.4%
LMArena WebDev	—	1617
FrontierSWE	—	25.3%
WeirdML	—	67.3%
ALE-Bench	—	1,508

Agentic & Tool Use Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#27)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
APEX-Agents	—	65.3%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	30.4%	—
GDP.pdf	—	17.2%
Vending-Bench 2	—	9,047

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Grok 4.6: 61.4 (#20)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
CritPt	0%	19.7%
Chess Puzzles	0%	40%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1309	1447
DTBench	48.8%	97.3%
LMCA	4.5%	48.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	123.5	156.44
ARC-AGI-2	—	67.1%
SimpleBench	—	75.9%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	80%
ARC-AGI-1	—	87.5%
EBR-Bench	—	30.5%
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	34%

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Grok 4.6: 67.0 (#24)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	16.7%	99.2%
LMArena Math	1307	1423
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	66%
FrontierMath Tier 4	—	31.7%
ProofBench	—	51%

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#20)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
GPQA Diamond	39.5%	94%
LMArena Expert	1248	1467
SimpleQA Verified	—	49.3%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	4.4%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Grok 4.6: 43.6 (#23)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
LMArena Vision	—	1263
Blueprint-Bench 2	—	33.2%
Furniture Assembly	—	40%
LMArena Document	—	1452
MindCube	46.7%	—

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Grok 4.6: 53.0 (#74)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
LMArena Non-English	1318	1420
LMArena German	1370	1431
LMArena Russian	1335	1422
LMArena Chinese	—	1480
LMArena French	—	1461
LMArena Japanese	—	1376
LMArena Korean	—	1397
LMArena Spanish	—	1404

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Grok 4.6: 75.4 (#63)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
LMArena Instruction Following	1299	1431

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Grok 4.6: 44.5 (#66)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
LMArena Longer Query	1317	1454

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Grok 4.6: 62.3 (#80)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Grok 4.6
LMArena Text	1334	1428
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	1428
LMArena Multi-Turn	1334	1425
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1126	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Grok 4.6?

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Grok 4.6?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Grok 4.6 lists at $2 and $6.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Grok 4.6 better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.5 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.6 does, with 500K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Grok 4.6 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Grok 4.6 has 49.