Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Kimi K3
Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 80× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K3 leads 74.2 to 22.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 97.2% for Kimi K3.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 59.5 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2026-07-16 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 1.05M |
| Max output | 8K | 1.05M |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $3 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $15 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 53 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 59.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1508 |
| DeepSWE | — | 68.5% |
| FrontierCode | — | 44.2% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1654 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 25.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 82.6% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 1,524 |
Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 50.6% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 37.1% |
| PostTrainBench | — | 32% |
| GBAEval | — | 48.3% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 19% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,165 |
Reasoning Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 23.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 39% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1496 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 91.2% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 52.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 157.45 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 60.4% |
| SimpleBench | — | 60.7% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 93.6% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 94.5% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 26% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 95% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.1 |
Math Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 97.2% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1491 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 72.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 39% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 87.8% |
| ProofBench | — | 87% |
Knowledge Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 93.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1521 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 50.6% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | — | 29.5% |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 34.2% |
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1466 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1488 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1482 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1529 |
| LMArena French | — | 1491 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1487 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1458 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1472 |
Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1483 |
Long Context Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1494 |
Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1476 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1454 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | 2082 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1488 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1339 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 80× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Kimi K3?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Kimi K3 better for coding?
Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Kimi K3 share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K3 has 53.