Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-4o
Wins 0 of 7 areas
—
Wins 4 of 7 areas
Coding · Facts · Images and charts · Long documents
GPT-4o wins more areas, narrowly.Gemma 3 12B is cheaper.
Scores updated · 52 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the seven areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software02GPT-4o2 of 2 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up12GPT-4o2 of 3 tests
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video12GPT-4o2 of 3 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts01GPT-4o1 of 1 test
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own00Even0 each · 1 tie
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking11Even1 each · 1 tie
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked00Even0 each · 1 tie
Agents, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Gemma 3 12B costs 99% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where GPT-4o pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+59.5points ahead
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+47.7points ahead
- Harder college exam questions with imagesMMMU-Pro+18.8points ahead
Where Gemma 3 12B pulls ahead
- Very hard expert questions across many subjectsHumanity's Last Exam+2.4points ahead
- Math problems shown in pictures and chartsMathVista+1.5points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 52 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingGPT-4o
- SciCodeGPT-4o by 16.916.433.3+16.9
- Terminal-Bench HardGPT-4o by 7.50.88.3+7.5
ReasoningEven
- GPQA DiamondGPT-4o by 17.734.952.6+17.7
- Humanity's Last ExamGemma 3 12B by 2.44.21.8+2.4
- CritPttie00tie
FactsGPT-4o
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationGPT-4o by 59.52.662.1+59.5
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyGPT-4o by 13.410.323.7+13.4
- Vectara HHEM hallucination ratelower is betterGemma 3 12B by 5.24.49.6+5.2
Images and chartsGPT-4o
Other results38 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- AA-OmniscienceGPT-4o by 66.6-77.1-10.5+66.6
- InfoVQA (Acc)GPT-4o by 36.943.880.7+36.9
- Arena HardGPT-4o by 35.743.679.3+35.7
- SimpleQAGPT-4o by 31.96.338.2+31.9
- MMLongBench-DOC (Acc)GPT-4o by 21.521.342.8+21.5
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexGPT-4o by 18.45.824.2+18.4
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)GPT-4o by 18.110.828.9+18.1
- BLINK (Acc)GPT-4o by 17.750.368+17.7
- RealWorldQA (Acc)GPT-4o by 16.359.175.4+16.3
- EgoSchema (full)GPT-4o by 15.356.972.2+15.3
- LongVideoBench (val)GPT-4o by 15.251.566.7+15.2
- VideoMME (w sub.)GPT-4o by 15.162.177.2+15.1
- MMLU-ProGPT-4o by 14.160.674.7+14.1
- LiveCodeBenchGPT-4o by 13.724.638.3+13.7
- Video-MME (w/o sub.)GPT-4o by 13.758.271.9+13.7
- MLVU-MCQ (Acc)GPT-4o by 12.352.364.6+12.3
- OCRBench (Acc)GPT-4o by 113 rating points702815+113 rating
- MMVU-Val (Pass@1)GPT-4o by 10.45767.4+10.4
- AI2DGPT-4o by 1084.294.2+10
- ChartQAGPT-4o by 1075.785.7+10
- MMMU (val) (Pass@1)GPT-4o by 9.559.669.1+9.5
- TOMATOGPT-4o by 9.128.637.7+9.1
- MMStar (Acc)GPT-4o by 8.656.164.7+8.6
- MMBench-EN-v1.1 (Acc)GPT-4o by 8.574.683.1+8.5
- IFEvalGemma 3 12B by 7.988.981+7.9
- AI2D (Acc)GPT-4o by 6.578.184.6+6.5
- DocVQAGPT-4o by 5.787.192.8+5.7
- vectara_factual_consistencyGemma 3 12B by 5.295.690.4+5.2
- HumanEvalGPT-4o by 4.885.490.2+4.8
- MMVet (Acc)GPT-4o by 4.264.969.1+4.2
- MMVet (Pass@1)GPT-4o by 4.264.969.1+4.2
- vectara_answer_rateGemma 3 12B by 3.697.493.8+3.6
- AA IntelligenceGPT-4o by 3.53.87.3+3.5
- GSM8KGemma 3 12B by 3.594.490.9+3.5
- vectara_avg_summary_lengthGemma 3 12B by 3.189.786.6+3.1
- MATH-VisionGemma 3 12B by 1.732.130.4+1.7
- MathVision (full) (Pass@1)Gemma 3 12B by 1.732.130.4+1.7
- VSI-BenchGPT-4o by 1.632.434+1.6
Questions people ask
Which is better, Gemma 3 12B or GPT-4o?
GPT-4o wins four of the seven areas where both have results: coding, facts, images and charts and long documents. Gemma 3 12B wins none, but costs 99% less. They are level on agents, reasoning and following instructions.
Which is better for coding?
GPT-4o. It wins 2 of the 2 coding tests both models report; Gemma 3 12B wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Gemma 3 12B costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; GPT-4o costs $5.00 and $15.00. That makes Gemma 3 12B about 99% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 52 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 14 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 38 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.