Compare / Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-5.4 Nano

Gemma 3 12B vs GPT-5.4 Nano

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Gemma 3 12B
Google · profile
GPT-5.4 Nano
OpenAI · profile
Results compared
20
Shared sources
3

Gemma 3 12B or GPT-5.4 Nano? The short answer

  • Gemma 3 12B is cheaper: $0.075 against $0.46 per million tokens, 6.2 times less.
  • GPT-5.4 Nano scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 20.7 against 3.8.
  • On our business benchmarks, Gemma 3 12B ranks higher for sticking to the facts.
  • On our business benchmarks, GPT-5.4 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Gemma 3 12BGPT-5.4 Nano
Price per million tokens$0.050 in · $0.15 out$0.20 in · $1.25 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.075$0.46
Cheapest host, blended–$0.23 (OpenAI)
Intelligence Index3.820.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens400,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inthe USthe 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 caseGemma 3 12BGPT-5.4 Nano
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 147 of 161 59 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 195 of 195 85 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 149 of 187 107 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 5 of 153 90 of 153
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 17 of 21

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricGemma 3 12BGPT-5.4 Nano
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,3861,405
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3321,335
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,2741,438
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,3211,387
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,3421,401
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,3131,362
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 5.8056.1
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 3.8020.7
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 34.9%81.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 4.2%28.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 36.7%75.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 8.3%76.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedSciCode% of problems 16.4%47.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 0.0%60.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks 0.0%0.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 0.8%42.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ-bench banking% of tasks 0.8%27.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 10.8%76.0%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedAnswer rate% of documents 97.4%100.0%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedHallucination rate% of summaries 4.4%3.1%

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 Gemma 3 12B better than GPT-5.4 Nano?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemma 3 12B ranks higher for sticking to the facts; GPT-5.4 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or GPT-5.4 Nano?

Gemma 3 12B costs $0.075 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.46 for GPT-5.4 Nano.

Run Gemma 3 12B and GPT-5.4 Nano on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.