ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

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

  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. 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
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 miniQwen Turbo: Text · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Gemma 3 12B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingGemma 3 12B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen TurboGPT-4o miniGemma 3 12B IT
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%242228
Price25%10077100
Inputs & features15%357050
Context window10%602424
Overall100%48/10043/10049/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen Turbo vs GPT-4o mini vs Gemma 3 12B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-4o miniOpenAIGemma 3 12B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—126.6 (best)123.5
ECI rank—#135 of 148 (best)#138 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions41.8% (best)37.7%39.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—0.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.1%6.9%16.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—8.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.15$0.05 (best)
Output$0.20$0.60$0.15 (best)
Cached input—$0.075—
Blended (3:1)$0.087$0.263$0.075 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 7 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen-turbogpt-4o-mini—
API providers321 (best)7
ReleasedNov 1, 2024Jul 18, 2024Mar 12, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Sep 2023Aug 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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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

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 Qwen Turbo, GPT-4o mini and Gemma 3 12B IT 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: Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Gemma 3 12B IT up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Turbo accepts text; GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemma 3 12B IT accepts text and images. 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; Qwen Turbo and GPT-4o mini 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: Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Gemma 3 12B IT Aug 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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