Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral Large
Updated October 21, 2026. 29 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Gemma 3 12B has the edge where output tokens cost 36.9x less, and where the context window is larger, 131K against 128K tokens.
- Shared results
- 29
- Gemma 3 12B only
- 12
- Mistral Large only
- 15
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Large
Mistral Large leads, 5.8 against 3.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemma 3 12B has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.1.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Mistral Large has a GPQA Diamond result, 47.7%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Mistral Large has a AIME result, 9.2%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Mistral Large has a MMLU Pro result, 69.7%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemma 3 12B
Gemma 3 12B takes 131K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemma 3 12B
Gemma 3 12B $0.0002, Mistral Large $0.0050 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemma 3 12B not benchmarked, Mistral Large not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 15.9 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: business and finance: Gemma 3 12B 1376 against Mistral Large 1238, 23.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemma 3 12B $0.1625 against Mistral Large $6.00 per million output tokens, 36.9x apart.
- Context window
- Gemma 3 12B takes 131K tokens, Mistral Large 128K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Gemma 3 12B | Bars | Mistral Large | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 4 | 1 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 5 | 0 | ||
| General | 11 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 25 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index21
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 5.8 | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.1% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.7% | 17.8% | Mistral Large |
| SciCode | 16.4% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1281 | 1275 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1313 | 1274 | Gemma 3 12B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 3.8 | 5.8 | Mistral Large |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.5 | 122.1 | Gemma 3 12B |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 0.1 | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 10.8% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index41
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 47.7% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.9% | 35.1% | Mistral Large |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.2% | 3.5% | Gemma 3 12B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 39.5% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1309 | 1257 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1248 | 1208 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1318 | 1268 | Gemma 3 12B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 9.2% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.4% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.2% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| AA Math Index | 18.3 | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 18.3% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 16.7% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1307 | 1261 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1336 | 1257 | Gemma 3 12B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 69.7% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 63.8% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 76.2% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 59.5% | 51.5% | Gemma 3 12B |
| MMLU | Not measured | 68.8% | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1366 | 1260 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1334 | 1255 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1381 | 1275 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1376 | 1238 | Gemma 3 12B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index111
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 36.7% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 8.3% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 60.8% | Mistral Large |
| LMCA | 4.5% | Not measured | Only Gemma 3 12B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1265 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1299 | 1249 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1331 | 1242 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: English | 1349 | 1284 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1318 | 1235 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1239 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1370 | 1242 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1170 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1202 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1325 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1268 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1335 | 1252 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1157 | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1334 | 1260 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1317 | 1261 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1307 | 1261 | Gemma 3 12B |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1297 | 1230 | Gemma 3 12B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemma 3 12B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemma 3 12B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemma 3 12B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Google Gemma 3 12B | Mistral Large |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 13, 2025 | February 26, 2024 |
| Context window | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.075 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.1625 | $6.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemma 3 12B better than Mistral Large for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Gemma 3 12B has the edge where output tokens cost 36.9x less, and where the context window is larger, 131K against 128K tokens.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Mistral Large?
Gemma 3 12B costs $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.1625 per million output tokens; Mistral Large costs $2.00 and $6.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemma 3 12B or Mistral Large?
Gemma 3 12B, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemma 3 12B vs Mistral Large comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemma 3 12B's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Mistral Large's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.