ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Gemma 3 12B IT

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemma 3 12B IT 49, Qwen Turbo 48, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44). 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. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    44/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), 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% · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% · Qwen Turbo 24.0%
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 12B ITGemma 3 12B IT $0.075 · Qwen Turbo $0.087 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Gemma 3 12B IT 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24B and Gemma 3 12B ITQwen Turbo: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Gemma 3 12B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24B and Gemma 3 12B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen TurboMistral Small 3.1 24BGemma 3 12B IT
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%242728
Price25%10076100
Inputs & features15%356050
Context window10%602424
Overall100%48/10044/10049/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Gemma 3 12B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIGemma 3 12B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—127.5 (best)123.5
ECI rank—#132 of 148 (best)#138 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions41.8%47.5% (best)39.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.1%5.8%16.7% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.229$0.05 (best)
Output$0.20$0.436$0.15 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.087$0.281$0.075 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providersMedian 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
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDqwen-turbo——
API providers327 (best)
ReleasedNov 1, 2024Mar 17, 2025Mar 12, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Jun 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
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Gemma 3 12B IT$0.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Turbo, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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); Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 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 $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (3.7× 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%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% and Qwen Turbo 24.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%, Gemma 3 12B IT 39.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 12B IT 16.7%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Turbo, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Gemma 3 12B IT accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Gemma 3 12B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Gemma 3 12B IT came out Mar 12, 2025; Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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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