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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 Flash vs Gemma 4 12B IT

Qwen3.5 Flash comes out ahead, 79 to 75 on our weighted score, though Gemma 4 12B IT is 29% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    79/100
    • ECI144.0
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 Flash

  2. Google

    Gemma 4 12B IT

    Released Jun 9, 2026

    75/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.075 / $0.275
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 4 12B IT

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Flash is our pick

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Gemma 4 12B IT (75). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Gemma 4 12B IT wins on price. 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 4 12B ITGemma 4 12B IT $0.125 · Qwen3.5 Flash $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 FlashQwen3.5 Flash 1,000,000 · Gemma 4 12B IT 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 FlashQwen3.5 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Gemma 4 12B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingGemma 4 12B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 FlashGemma 4 12B IT
Price50%8693
Inputs & features30%8070
Context window20%6037
Overall100%79/10075/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 Flash vs Gemma 4 12B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 FlashAlibaba (Qwen)Gemma 4 12B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)144.0—
ECI rank#82 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions82.3%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics18.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics84.4%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions20.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.075 (best)
Output$0.40$0.275 (best)
Cached input$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.125 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.5-flash—
API providers8 (best)2
ReleasedFeb 23, 2026Jun 9, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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.

  • Qwen3.5 Flash$1.80
  • Gemma 4 12B IT$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 Flash or Gemma 4 12B IT?

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Gemma 4 12B IT (75). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Gemma 4 12B IT wins on price. 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, Qwen3.5 Flash or Gemma 4 12B IT?

Gemma 4 12B IT is cheaper at $0.075 input / $0.275 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3.5 Flash costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.125 per million tokens for Gemma 4 12B IT versus $0.175 for Qwen3.5 Flash (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3.5 Flash has an ECI of 144.0 and Gemma 4 12B IT has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 Flash and Gemma 4 12B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Gemma 4 12B IT. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Gemma 4 12B IT up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 Flash accepts text, images and video; Gemma 4 12B IT accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Gemma 4 12B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.5 Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemma 4 12B IT is the newest, released Jun 9, 2026. Qwen3.5 Flash came out Feb 23, 2026.

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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