Google, open weights

# Gemma 3 12B

> Gemma 3 12B by Google, released March 2025. Ranked #262 of 354 with a Noometry Index of 32.1. API: $0.05 in / $0.15 out per M tokens. 131K context. Scores, sources and comparisons.
- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/models/gemma-3-12b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Title: Gemma 3 12B Benchmarks, Price & Rank (October 2026)

Gemma 3 12B by Google ranks 262nd of 354 ranked models on the Noometry Index as of October 2026, with a score of 32.1. Its strongest category is agentic & tool use, where it ranks 108th. API pricing starts at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens, with a 131K-token context window.

Last verified October 10, 2026

## Specifications

- **Noometry rank:** #262 of 354
- **Index score:** 32.1
- **Evidence:** Confirmed 24 results
- **Provider:** [![](/logos/google.svg) Google](https://noometry.com/providers/google)
- **Released:** March 12, 2025
- **Weights:** Open weights
- **Reasoning:** No
- **Context window:** 131K
- **Max output:** 8K
- **Input price:** $0.05 / M
- **Output price:** $0.15 / M
- **Blended price:** $0.075 / M
- **Output speed:** Not measured
- **Value:** #11 of 219
- **Knowledge cutoff:** August 2024
- **Input:** text, image
- **Hugging Face:** [google/gemma-3-12b-it](https://huggingface.co/google/gemma-3-12b-it)

## Category scores

Each category score combines every public result we have in that category.

Gemma 3 12B category scores

1.  Coding 31.7
2.  Agentic & Tool Use 25.5
3.  Reasoning 15.7
4.  Math 22.3
5.  Knowledge 26.5
6.  Multilingual 45.7
7.  Instruction Following 68.6
8.  Long Context 40.0
9.  Writing & Preference 47.5
10.  020406080

Gemma 3 12B category ranks
| Category | Score | Rank | Results |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Coding](https://noometry.com/best/coding) | 31.7 | #280 | 2 |
| [Agentic & Tool Use](https://noometry.com/best/agentic) | 25.5 | #108 | 1 |
| [Reasoning](https://noometry.com/best/reasoning) | 15.7 | #313 | 5 |
| [Math](https://noometry.com/best/math) | 22.3 | #279 | 2 |
| [Knowledge](https://noometry.com/best/knowledge) | 26.5 | #257 | 3 |
| [Multilingual](https://noometry.com/best/multilingual) | 45.7 | #165 | 1 |
| [Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/best/instruction-following) | 68.6 | #186 | 1 |
| [Long Context](https://noometry.com/best/long-context) | 40.0 | #162 | 1 |
| [Writing & Preference](https://noometry.com/best/writing) | 47.5 | #209 | 4 |

## Strengths and weaknesses

Categories where Gemma 3 12B places highest and lowest among the models ranked in each, with its score against that category's median.

### Strongest categories

Gemma 3 12B: strongest categories
| Category | Score | vs median | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Long Context](https://noometry.com/best/long-context) | 40.0 | −0.9 | #162 of 296, top 55% |
| [Multilingual](https://noometry.com/best/multilingual) | 45.7 | −1.7 | #165 of 297, top 56% |
| [Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/best/instruction-following) | 68.6 | −2.7 | #186 of 305, top 61% |

### Weakest categories

Gemma 3 12B: weakest categories
| Category | Score | vs median | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Reasoning](https://noometry.com/best/reasoning) | 15.7 | −7.9 | #313 of 350, top 90% |
| [Math](https://noometry.com/best/math) | 22.3 | −14.3 | #279 of 327, top 86% |
| [Coding](https://noometry.com/best/coding) | 31.7 | −7.0 | #280 of 340, top 83% |

## Closest competitors

The models ranked just above and below Gemma 3 12B. When scores are this close, price and speed are often the better way to choose.

Models ranked closest to Gemma 3 12B
| Model | Rank | Score | Blended $/M | Speed |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Granite 3.1 8b Instruct](https://noometry.com/models/granite-3-1-8b-instruct) | #258 | 32.4 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-granite-3-1-8b-instruct) |
| [Pixtral Large](https://noometry.com/models/pixtral-large) | #259 | 32.2 | $3 | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-pixtral-large) |
| [Falcon-180B](https://noometry.com/models/falcon-180b) | #260 | 32.2 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/falcon-180b-vs-gemma-3-12b) |
| [Gemini 1.5 Pro (May 2024)](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-1-5-pro) | #261 | 32.1 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-1-5-pro-vs-gemma-3-12b) |
| [Mistral Large](https://noometry.com/models/mistral-large) | #263 | 31.9 | $3 | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-mistral-large) |
| [Qwen3-4B](https://noometry.com/models/qwen3-4b) | #264 | 31.9 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-4b) |
| [Amazon Nova Lite](https://noometry.com/models/amazon-nova-lite) | #265 | 31.9 | $0.10 | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/amazon-nova-lite-vs-gemma-3-12b) |
| [Mistral Medium 3.1](https://noometry.com/models/mistral-medium-3-1) | #266 | 31.9 | $0.80 | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-mistral-medium-3-1) |

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. [Advertise on Noometry](https://noometry.com/advertise)

## Benchmark results

Every published result we track, with its source. Bold rows are the ones used for ranking; where several exist we prefer independent runs over self-reported numbers.

### Coding

Gemma 3 12B Coding benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [SciCode](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/scicode) | 17.4% | #118 of 121, top 98% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [LMArena Coding](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-coding) | 1281 | #210 of 294, top 72% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Agentic & Tool Use

Gemma 3 12B Agentic & Tool Use benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/bfcl) | 30.4% | #33 of 49, top 68% | prompt | [Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard](https://gorilla.cs.berkeley.edu/leaderboard.html) |  |

### Reasoning

Gemma 3 12B Reasoning benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [CritPt](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/critpt) | 0% | #107 of 134, top 80% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [Chess Puzzles](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/chess-puzzles) | 0% | #110 of 129, top 86% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) | 2026-08-28 |
| [LMArena Hard Prompts](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-hard-prompts) | 1309 | #183 of 297, top 62% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [DTBench](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/dtbench) | 48.8% | #139 of 151, top 93% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [LMCA](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/lmca) | 4.5% | #124 of 125, top 100% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [Epoch Capabilities Index](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/epoch-capabilities-index) | 123.5 | #160 of 213, top 76% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/eci) | 2025-03-12 |

### Math

Gemma 3 12B Math benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/otis-mock-aime) | 16.7% | #128 of 173, top 74% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) | 2026-08-28 |
| [LMArena Math](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-math) | 1307 | #178 of 285, top 63% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Knowledge

Gemma 3 12B Knowledge benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [GPQA Diamond](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/gpqa-diamond) | 39.5% | #151 of 186, top 82% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) | 2026-08-28 |
| [Vectara Hallucination Rate](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/vectara-hallucination) (lower is better) | 4.4% | #5 of 96, top 6% |  | [Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard](https://github.com/vectara/hallucination-leaderboard) |  |
| [LMArena Expert](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-expert) | 1248 | #198 of 273, top 73% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Multimodal

Gemma 3 12B Multimodal benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [MindCube](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/mindcube) | 46.7% | Best of 2 |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |

### Multilingual

Gemma 3 12B Multilingual benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Non-English](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-non-english) | 1318 | #165 of 297, top 56% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena German](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-german) | 1370 | #116 of 231, top 51% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Russian](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-russian) | 1335 | #155 of 283, top 55% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Instruction Following

Gemma 3 12B Instruction Following benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-instruction-following) | 1299 | #179 of 298, top 61% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Long Context

Gemma 3 12B Long Context benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Longer Query](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-longer-query) | 1317 | #174 of 291, top 60% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Writing & Preference

Gemma 3 12B Writing & Preference benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Text](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-text) | 1334 | #170 of 297, top 58% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Creative Writing](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-creative-writing) | 1331 | #145 of 295, top 50% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [EQ-Bench Creative Writing](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/eqbench-creative-writing) | 1126 | #92 of 115, top 80% |  | [EQ-Bench](https://eqbench.com/creative_writing.html) |  |
| [LMArena Multi-Turn](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-multi-turn) | 1334 | #169 of 295, top 58% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

## API pricing by provider

Gemma 3 12B API prices
| Route | Input $/M | Output $/M | Cached input $/M | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [bedrock](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/models-supported.html) | $0.09 | $0.29 | — | 2026-10-10 |
| [deepinfra](https://deepinfra.com/models) | $0.05 | $0.15 | — | 2026-10-10 |
| [openrouter](https://openrouter.ai/google/gemma-3-12b-it) | $0.05 | $0.15 | — | 2026-10-10 |

[All Google API prices →](https://noometry.com/llm-pricing/google) [Estimate your cost →](https://noometry.com/tools/cost-calculator)

## Compare Gemma 3 12B

-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Gemma 3 27B](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-gemma-3-27b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Gemini 1.5 Pro (May 2024)](https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-1-5-pro-vs-gemma-3-12b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral Large](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-mistral-large)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Falcon-180B](https://noometry.com/compare/falcon-180b-vs-gemma-3-12b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3-4B](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-4b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Pixtral Large](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-pixtral-large)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Amazon Nova Lite](https://noometry.com/compare/amazon-nova-lite-vs-gemma-3-12b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-6 Astra](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-gpt-6-astra)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Claude Fable 5.1](https://noometry.com/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-gemma-3-12b)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Kimi K3](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-kimi-k3)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Grok 4.6](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-grok-4-6)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3.8 Max](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-qwen3-8-max)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs GLM-5.3](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-glm-5-3)
-   [Gemma 3 12B vs Muse Spark 1.3](https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-muse-spark-1-3)

## Other Google models

-   [Gemini 3.8 Flash](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-8-flash)61.8
-   [Gemini 3.7 Flash](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-7-flash)59.8
-   [Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-1-pro-preview)56.7
-   [Gemini 4 Argon](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-4-argon)56.5
-   [Gemini 3 Pro](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-pro)54.8
-   [Gemini 3.5 Flash](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-5-flash)54.2
-   [Gemini 3.6 Flash](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-6-flash)54.1
-   [Gemini 3 Flash Preview](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-3-flash-preview)52.3

## Frequently asked questions

### How good is Gemma 3 12B?

Gemma 3 12B by Google ranks 262nd of 354 ranked models on the Noometry Index as of October 2026, with a score of 32.1. Its strongest category is agentic & tool use, where it ranks 108th. API pricing starts at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens, with a 131K-token context window.

### How much does Gemma 3 12B cost?

Gemma 3 12B costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens on deepinfra.

### What is Gemma 3 12B's context window?

Gemma 3 12B accepts up to 131K tokens of input and can write up to 8K tokens in one response.

### Is Gemma 3 12B open source?

Yes. Gemma 3 12B's weights are downloadable from Hugging Face (google/gemma-3-12b-it); check the license for commercial terms.

### What are Gemma 3 12B's strengths and weaknesses?

Relative to other ranked models, Gemma 3 12B places best in long context, multilingual, instruction following and lowest in reasoning, math, coding.

### What is Gemma 3 12B best at?

Its best category is agentic & tool use, where it ranks 108th on Noometry.

### Cite this page

Noometry. (2026). Gemma 3 12B benchmarks and pricing. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://noometry.com/models/gemma-3-12b

Quote Noometry with a link back to this page. It is also available in [Markdown](https://noometry.com/md/models/gemma-3-12b.md).