Gemma 3 12B IT vs Qwen Turbo vs Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen Turbo 72, Gemma 3 12B IT 70, Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemma 3 12B IT
70/100- ECI123.5
- Price$0.05 / $0.15
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Turbo
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.20
- Context1M
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B
49/100- ECI88.2
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context33K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen Turbo 72/100, Gemma 3 12B IT 70/100, Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 12B IT on price and Qwen Turbo for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceGemma 3 12B ITGemma 3 12B IT $0.075 · Qwen Turbo $0.087 · Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Gemma 3 12B IT 131,072 · Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsGemma 3 12B ITGemma 3 12B IT: Text, Images · Qwen Turbo: Text · Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B: Text
- Self-hostingGemma 3 12B IT and Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemma 3 12B IT | Qwen Turbo | Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 | 97 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 35 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 60 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 72/100 | 49/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemma 3 12B ITGoogle | Qwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 123.5 (best) | — | 88.2 |
| ECI rank | #138 of 148 (best) | — | #148 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 39.5% | 41.8% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 16.7% (best) | 6.1% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.05 (best) | $0.05 (best) | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.15 | $0.20 | $0.10 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.075 (best) | $0.087 | $0.10 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 7 providers | Official Alibaba API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | qwen-turbo | — |
| API providers | 7 (best) | 3 | 1 |
| Released | Mar 12, 2025 | Nov 1, 2024 | Nov 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2024 | Apr 2024 | — |
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
- Qwen Turbo$0.90
- Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B$1.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemma 3 12B IT, Qwen Turbo or Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen Turbo 72/100, Gemma 3 12B IT 70/100, Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 12B IT on price and Qwen Turbo for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B IT, Qwen Turbo or Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B?
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); Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.10 for Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemma 3 12B IT has an ECI of 123.5, Qwen Turbo has not been scored yet and Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B has an ECI of 88.2.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 12B IT, Qwen Turbo and Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
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 32,768 for Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 12B IT up to 131,072, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemma 3 12B IT accepts text and images; Qwen Turbo accepts text; Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B accepts text. Gemma 3 12B IT handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Gemma 3 12B IT and Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemma 3 12B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B came out Nov 12, 2024; Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 12B IT Aug 2024, 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.
