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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 3 12B IT vs GPT-4o mini vs Qwen Turbo

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemma 3 12B IT 49, Qwen Turbo 48, GPT-4o mini 43). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemma 3 12B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI123.5
    • Price$0.05 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 12B IT

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-4o mini

    Released Jul 18, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI126.6
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove GPT-4o mini

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen Turbo
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemma 3 12B IT 49/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, GPT-4o mini 43/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 12B IT for raw capability and Qwen Turbo for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityGemma 3 12B ITShared benchmarks: Gemma 3 12B IT 28.1% · Qwen Turbo 24.0% · GPT-4o mini 22.3%
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 12B ITGemma 3 12B IT $0.075 · Qwen Turbo $0.087 · GPT-4o mini $0.263 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Gemma 3 12B IT 131,072 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4o miniGemma 3 12B IT: Text, Images · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen Turbo: Text
  • Self-hostingGemma 3 12B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 12B ITGPT-4o miniQwen Turbo
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%282224
Price25%10077100
Inputs & features15%507035
Context window10%242460
Overall100%49/10043/10048/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemma 3 12B IT vs GPT-4o mini vs Qwen Turbo specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 12B ITGoogleGPT-4o miniOpenAIQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)123.5126.6 (best)—
ECI rank#138 of 148#135 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions39.5%37.7%41.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—0.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics16.7% (best)6.9%6.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—8.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.15$0.05 (best)
Output$0.15 (best)$0.60$0.20
Cached input—$0.075—
Blended (3:1)$0.075 (best)$0.263$0.087
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 7 providersOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens128,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—gpt-4o-miniqwen-turbo
API providers721 (best)3
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Jul 18, 2024Nov 1, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Sep 2023Apr 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemma 3 12B IT$0.80
  • GPT-4o mini$2.70
  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 12B IT, GPT-4o mini or Qwen Turbo?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemma 3 12B IT 49/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, GPT-4o mini 43/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 12B IT for raw capability and Qwen Turbo for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B IT, GPT-4o mini or Qwen Turbo?

Gemma 3 12B IT is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 7 API providers). Qwen Turbo costs $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GPT-4o mini costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.075 per million tokens for Gemma 3 12B IT versus $0.087 for Qwen Turbo (1.2× as much) and $0.263 for GPT-4o mini (3.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Gemma 3 12B IT 28.1%, Qwen Turbo 24.0% and GPT-4o mini 22.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen Turbo 41.8%, Gemma 3 12B IT 39.5%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 12B IT 16.7%, GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 12B IT, GPT-4o mini and Qwen Turbo yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 3 12B IT leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen Turbo has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Gemma 3 12B IT and 128,000 for GPT-4o mini. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 12B IT up to 131,072, GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 12B IT accepts text and images; GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen Turbo accepts text. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Gemma 3 12B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini and Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemma 3 12B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 12B IT Aug 2024, GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Qwen Turbo Apr 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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