Model comparison
Gemma 3 12B vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
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MicrosoftSummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in multilingual, where Gemma 3 12B leads 45.9 to 25.4.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 29.1 |
| Released | 2025-03-12 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | — |
| Max output | 8K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | — |
| Results tracked | 24 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.3 (#307)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1040 |
| SciCode | 17.4% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 29.6% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 40.6% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
Reasoning Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 18.7 (#254)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1028 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 48.8% | — |
| LMCA | 4.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | — |
Math Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads
Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 29.2 (#220)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1089 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | — |
Knowledge Too close to call
Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.3 (#251)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 984 |
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 12B: —, Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |
Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.4 (#280)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1000 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1006 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1004 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1016 |
| LMArena French | — | 1038 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 856 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1058 |
Instruction Following Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 52.1 (#289)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1023 |
Long Context Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.3 (#284)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 996 |
Writing & Preference Gemma 3 12B leads
Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.3 (#296)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?
Gemma 3 12B is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.8 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemma 3 12B or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?
Gemma 3 12B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 31.2 versus 28.3 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.