Intelligence
6 scoreGoogle · Flagships Analysis
Gemma 3 12B
Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis
Canonical slug: gemma-3-12b · Canonical model registry at build time
Input Price
$0.00Output Price
$0.00Verbosity
21M Output tokens from Intelligence Index 4 out of 4 units for Verbosity . CompaExecutive Assessment
Routing Verdict & Tradeoffs
Ethen Routing Verdict
Budget-friendly / task-specific model
Gemma 3 12B Instruct scores 6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it below average among other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 6).
Best for high-volume, simple, or domain-specific tasks where cost or speed matters more than deep reasoning.
Task Fit Assessment
| Workload | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Complex reasoning & agentic workflows | suboptimal | Intelligence score 6 is better suited for straightforward tasks than multi-step reasoning. |
| Cost-sensitive pipelines | optimal | Output pricing at $0.00 is very competitive for high-volume workloads. |
Cost Pressure Analysis
Low
Pricing is competitive — input $0.00, output $0.00. Suitable for sustained production use.
Technical Specifications
Architecture and Limits
| Specification | Value | Validation Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Model type | Open weights | inferred |
| Reasoning | No | faq |
| Input modalities | Gemma 3 12B Instruct supports text and image input. | faq |
| Output modalities | Gemma 3 12B Instruct supports text output. | faq |
| Context window | 130k tokens | faq |
| Open weights / source | Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is open weights. The model weights are publicly available and can be downloaded for self-hosting. | faq |
| Parameters | Gemma 3 12B Instruct has 12.2 billion parameters. | faq |
| License | Gemma 3 12B Instruct is released under the Gemma license license. This license allows commercial use. | faq |
| API availability | Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is available via API through 5 providers. | faq |
Evidence charts
Profile visualizations
Charts are the same canonical evidence cards previously published for this slug, contained inside the D18D page grammar.
AA-Omniscience Index
AA-Omniscience Index (higher is better) measures knowledge reliability and hallucination. It rewards correct answers, penalizes hallucinations, and has no penalty for refusing to answer. Scores range from -100 to 100, where 0 means as many correct as incorrect answers, and negative scores mean more incorrect than correct. · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Bars intentionally show many models at once so the page feels like a benchmark report rather than a dashboard.
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Artificial Analysis Openness Index: Score
Openness Index assesses model openness on a 0 to 100 normalized scale (higher is more open) · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Bars intentionally show many models at once so the page feels like a benchmark report rather than a dashboard.
Intelligence
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Speed
Output tokens per second · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Speed should be read together with latency and cost; fast output does not always mean better user-perceived performance.
Context Window
Context window: tokens limit · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Larger context windows enable complex multi-turn tasks but may increase latency and cost for long inputs.
Cost per Intelligence Index Task
Weighted average cost (USD) per Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index task, segmented by token type. Lower is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Ethen Gateway should route away from this model when the task is simple, repetitive, or likely to generate many output tokens.
Cost per Task
Weighted average cost (USD) per Intelligence Index task · Lower is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Ethen Gateway should route away from this model when the task is simple, repetitive, or likely to generate many output tokens.
Cost to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Cost (USD) to run all evaluations in the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Ethen Gateway should route away from this model when the task is simple, repetitive, or likely to generate many output tokens.
Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output
Price (USD per M Tokens) · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Bars intentionally show many models at once so the page feels like a benchmark report rather than a dashboard.
Model Size: Total and Active Parameters
Comparison between total model parameters and parameters active during inference · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Larger models generally perform better but cost more to serve. Active parameter count matters for inference efficiency.
Output Tokens per Intelligence Index Task
Weighted average number of output tokens used to run one task in the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis
Retrieved 2026-07-08
Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.
- Source:
- Published benchmark dataset
- Retrieval date:
- 2026-07-08
- Methodology:
- Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.
Higher values indicate stronger overall capability. Bars show how models compare on composite intelligence metrics.
Methodology
Methodology & Provenance
This page is rendered from the normalized profile and page JSON for Gemma 3 12B.
Benchmark values are preserved as normalized; only layout, disclosure ordering, and typography are adjusted for readability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Model FAQs & Technical Disclosures
Gemma 3 12B Instruct was released on March 12, 2025.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct was created by Google.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct scores 6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it below average among other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 6).
When evaluated on the Intelligence Index, Gemma 3 12B Instruct generated 21M output tokens, which is at the higher end compared to other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 9.5M).
No, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is not a reasoning model. It provides direct responses without extended chain-of-thought reasoning.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct supports text and image input.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct supports text output.
Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct supports image input and can analyze, describe, and answer questions about images.
Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is multimodal. It can process text and image input and generate text output.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct has a context window of 130k tokens. This determines how much text and conversation history the model can process in a single request.
Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is open weights. The model weights are publicly available and can be downloaded for self-hosting.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct has 12.2 billion parameters.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct is released under the Gemma license license. This license allows commercial use.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct achieves a score of 6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. This composite benchmark evaluates models across reasoning, knowledge, mathematics, and coding.
Yes, Gemma 3 12B Instruct is available via API through 5 providers.
Gemma 3 12B Instruct is available through 5 API providers.