ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Turbo vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Gemma 3 12B IT

Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50, Gemma 3 12B IT 49, Qwen Turbo 48). 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. Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

  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 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Gemma 3 12B IT 49/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 3 12B IT on price. 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.

  • CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructShared benchmarks: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8% · Gemma 3 12B IT 28.1% · Qwen Turbo 24.0%
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 12B ITGemma 3 12B IT $0.075 · Qwen Turbo $0.087 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Gemma 3 12B IT 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 12B ITQwen Turbo: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Gemma 3 12B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 12B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen TurboLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructGemma 3 12B IT
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%243028
Price25%10072100
Inputs & features15%355050
Context window10%6010024
Overall100%48/10050/10049/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen Turbo vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Gemma 3 12B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaGemma 3 12B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—129.7 (best)123.5
ECI rank—#126 of 148 (best)#138 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions41.8%51.8% (best)39.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.1%7.8%16.7% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.225$0.05 (best)
Output$0.20$0.69$0.15 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.087$0.341$0.075 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 4 providersMedian of 7 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDqwen-turbo——
API providers347 (best)
ReleasedNov 1, 2024Apr 5, 2025Mar 12, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Aug 2024Aug 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
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
  • Gemma 3 12B IT$0.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Turbo, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Gemma 3 12B IT?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Gemma 3 12B IT 49/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 3 12B IT on price. 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, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). 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 $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (4.6× 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): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8%, Gemma 3 12B IT 28.1% and Qwen Turbo 24.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%, Gemma 3 12B IT 39.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 12B IT 16.7%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Turbo, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 12B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen Turbo and 131,072 for Gemma 3 12B IT. Maximum output per response: Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Gemma 3 12B IT accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 12B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Gemma 3 12B IT came out Mar 12, 2025; Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, 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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