Compare / Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite vs Gemma 3 12B
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite vs Gemma 3 12B
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 17 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite or Gemma 3 12B? The short answer
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper: $0.075 against $0.18 per million tokens, 2.3 times less.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 8.5 against 3.8.
- On our business benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
At a glance
| Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Gemma 3 12B | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.10 in · $0.40 out | $0.050 in · $0.15 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.18 | $0.075 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.088 (Google AI Studio) | – |
| Intelligence Index | 8.5 | 3.8 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | the US | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 91 of 161 | 147 of 161 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 153 of 195 | 195 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | not measured | 149 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 1 of 153 | 5 of 153 |
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 8.50 | 3.80 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 62.5% | 34.9% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 6.8% | 4.2% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | IFBench% of instructions | 49.9% | 36.7% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 55.7% | 8.3% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks | 4.5% | 0.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Τ²-bench telecom% of tasks | 19.0% | 10.8% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Irrelevance detection% correct | 93.3% | 70.3% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Memory% correct | 20.6% | 27.5% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Multi-turn tasks% correct | 13.5% | 5.8% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Overall accuracy% correct | 36.9% | 30.4% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Relevance detection% correct | 50.0% | 93.8% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Single-turn calls (curated)% correct | 86.6% | 79.4% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Single-turn calls (user-contributed)% correct | 65.8% | 74.2% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reported | Web search% correct | 21.0% | 4.0% |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboardreported | Answer rate% of documents | 99.5% | 97.4% |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboardreported | Hallucination rate% of summaries | 3.3% | 4.4% |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite better than Gemma 3 12B?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite or Gemma 3 12B?
Gemma 3 12B costs $0.075 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.18 for Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite.
Run Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite and Gemma 3 12B on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.