Model comparison

Gemma 3 27B vs Llama 3.2 1B

Gemma 3 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 20.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 27B Google

30.8

Rank #284 Confirmed

Llama 3.2 1B Meta

20.1

Rank #354 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 8 categories and Llama 3.2 1B in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 3 27B leads 52.5 to 21.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 47.7% for Gemma 3 27B and 23.9% for Llama 3.2 1B.
  • Llama 3.2 1B is cheaper at $0.027 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.08 / $0.16 for Gemma 3 27B.
  • Gemma 3 27B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 60K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 27B and Llama 3.2 1B specifications
Gemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
ProviderGoogleMeta
Noometry Index30.820.1
Released2025-03-112024-09-24
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K60K
Max output8K54K
Input $ / M tokens$0.08$0.027
Output $ / M tokens$0.16$0.20
Results tracked4322

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Category by category

Coding Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 22.5 (#334), Llama 3.2 1B: 21.1 (#338)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Coding13221070
Aider Polyglot4.9%—
SciCode21.2%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—8.2%
LiveBench Coding39.9%—
BigCodeBench Complete—11.3%

Agentic & Tool Use Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.1 (#110), Llama 3.2 1B: 14.6 (#150)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard29.5%10.8%
BALROG—6.6%

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 16.7 (#301), Llama 3.2 1B: 16.2 (#308)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
Chess Puzzles0%0%
LMArena Hard Prompts13401044
Epoch Capabilities Index130.04101.99
Kagi LLM Benchmark40.4%—
CritPt0%—
LiveBench Reasoning43.8%—
DTBench52.5%—
LiveBench Data Analysis51.5%—
LMCA12.3%—
LiveBench50%—

Math Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.9 (#265), Llama 3.2 1B: 10.4 (#313)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202522.5%0.6%
LMArena Math13121086
LiveBench Math55.4%—
MATH Level 574%—

Knowledge Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.5 (#261), Llama 3.2 1B: 7.2 (#312)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
GPQA Diamond47.7%23.9%
LMArena Expert13041007
Confabulations40.3%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 32.6 (#100), Llama 3.2 1B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Vision1164—
GeoBench52%—

Multilingual Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 46.9 (#155), Llama 3.2 1B: 23.8 (#292)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Non-English1334973
LMArena Chinese1346959
LMArena German13621014
LMArena Russian1349941
LMArena French1368—
LMArena Japanese1287—
LMArena Korean1308—
LMArena Spanish1349—

Instruction Following Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 70.6 (#160), Llama 3.2 1B: 52.4 (#290)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Instruction Following13211031
LiveBench Instruction Following74.9%—

Long Context Llama 3.2 1B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#293), Llama 3.2 1B: 31.9 (#274)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Longer Query13331050
Fiction.LiveBench33.3%—

Writing & Preference Gemma 3 27B leads

Gemma 3 27B: 52.5 (#168), Llama 3.2 1B: 21.3 (#310)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BLlama 3.2 1B
LMArena Text13581055
LMArena Creative Writing13461033
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1266200
LMArena Multi-Turn13451030
Short-Story Creative Writing79.9%—
LiveBench Language34.6%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 27B better than Llama 3.2 1B?

Gemma 3 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 20.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Llama 3.2 1B?

Llama 3.2 1B is cheaper. It lists at $0.027 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Gemma 3 27B lists at $0.08 and $0.16.

Is Gemma 3 27B or Llama 3.2 1B better for coding?

Gemma 3 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 22.5 versus 21.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 27B does, with 131K tokens against 60K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Llama 3.2 1B share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 1B has 22.

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