Model comparison
Gemma 4 12B vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Head-to-head evidence from 17 shared benchmark results across 7 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Gemma 4 12B #137 (Estimated); Qwen3.6 Plus #30 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Gemma 4 12B and Qwen3.6 Plus share 17 comparable benchmark results. 4 of 8 categories are comparable. 6 results are unique to Gemma 4 12B; 43 to Qwen3.6 Plus.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 17
- Gemma 4 12B only
- 6
- Qwen3.6 Plus only
- 43
- Comparable categories
- 4 / 8
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemma 4 12B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 17 shared benchmark results across 7 evidence categories; 4 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Qwen3.6 Plus is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 65.2 to 47.29. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Qwen3.6 Plus's sharpest advantage is in reasoning, where it averages 62 against 43.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is AIME26, 77.5% to 95.3%. Gemma 4 12B does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Qwen3.6 Plus gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Gemma 4 12B.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | Gemma 4 12B | Δ | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | Gemma 4 12B77.5 | Margin← 20.4 | Qwen3.6 Plus57.1 |
| Reasoning | Gemma 4 12B43.4 | Margin→ 18.6 | Qwen3.6 Plus62.0 |
| Math | Gemma 4 12B77.5 | Margin← 17.0 | Qwen3.6 Plus60.5 |
| Multimodal | Gemma 4 12B69.1 | Margin→ 10.7 | Qwen3.6 Plus79.8 |
| Agentic | Gemma 4 12BNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus61.6 |
| Coding | Gemma 4 12BNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus70.3 |
| Multilingual | Gemma 4 12BNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus84.7 |
| Inst. Following | Gemma 4 12BNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus82.3 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
AIME26
MathA 77.5%B 95.3%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 17.8AIME26: Gemma 4 12B scored 77.5%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 95.3%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 78.8%B 90.4%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 11.6GPQA: Gemma 4 12B scored 78.8%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 90.4%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMLU-Pro
KnowledgeA 77.2%B 88.5%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 11.3MMLU-Pro: Gemma 4 12B scored 77.2%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 88.5%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMMU-Pro
MultimodalA 69.1%B 78.8%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 9.7MMMU-Pro: Gemma 4 12B scored 69.1%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 78.8%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Gemma 4 12BNot available | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Gemma 4 12BNot available | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Gemma 4 12BNot available | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Gemma 4 12B256K | Qwen3.6 Plus1M | Qwen3.6 Plus lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic16 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 36.3% | 97.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 61.6% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 58.8% | Not comparable |
| QwenClawBenchSource | — | 57.2% | Not comparable |
| τ³-bench resultsSource | — | 70.7% | Not comparable |
| VITA-BenchSource | — | 44.3% | Not comparable |
| DeepPlanningSource | — | 41.5% | Not comparable |
| ToolathlonSource | — | 39.8% | Not comparable |
| MCP AtlasSource | — | 48.2% | Not comparable |
| MCP-TasksSource | — | 74.1% | Not comparable |
| WideResearchSource | — | 74.3% | Not comparable |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | — | 27.6% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 31.8% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 1135 | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 50.60% | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | — | 18.0% | Not comparable |
Coding7 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-SciCodeSource | 38.2% | 40.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | — | 78.8% | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | — | 56.6% | Not comparable |
| SWE MultilingualSource | — | 73.8% | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBench v6Source | — | 87.1% | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | — | 25.56% | Not comparable |
| AA Coding IndexSource | — | 54.5% | Not comparable |
ReasoningQwen3.6 Plus wins6 benchmarks
KnowledgeGemma 4 12B wins15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 78.8% | 90.4% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| GPQA-DSource | 78.8% | — | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ProSource | 77.2% | 88.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | 5.2% | — | Not comparable |
| MMMLUSource | 83.4% | — | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 22.0% | 39.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 75.3% | 88.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-HLESource | 14.8% | 25.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | -51.9% | 2.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 16.0% | 26.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 80.8% | 32.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| SuperGPQASource | — | 71.6% | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ReduxSource | — | 94.5% | Not comparable |
| C-EvalSource | — | 93.3% | Not comparable |
| HLESource | — | 28.8% | Not comparable |
MathGemma 4 12B wins7 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME26Source | 77.5% | 95.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| HMMT Feb 2025Source | — | 96.7% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Nov 2025Source | — | 94.6% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Feb 2026Source | — | 87.8% | Not comparable |
| MMAnswerBenchSource | — | 83.8% | Not comparable |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source | — | 26.207% | Not comparable |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source | — | 8.333% | Not comparable |
Multilingual2 benchmarks
MultimodalQwen3.6 Plus wins10 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 12B | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMMU-ProSource | 69.1% | 78.8% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| MathVisionSource | 79.7% | 88.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| MedXpertQA (MM)Source | 48.7% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 69.7% | 78.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| MMMUSource | — | 86.0% | Not comparable |
| VideoMMMUSource | — | 84.0% | Not comparable |
| ScreenSpot ProSource | — | 68.2% | Not comparable |
| CharXivSource | — | 81.5% | Not comparable |
| V*Source | — | 96.9% | Not comparable |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | — | 1249 | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (5)
Which is better, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.2 to 47.29. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME26, where the scores are 77.5% and 95.3%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Gemma 4 12B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 57.1. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Gemma 4 12B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 60.5. Inside this category, AIME26 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for reasoning, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 62 versus 43.4. Inside this category, AA-LCR is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 69.1. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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