Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Gemma 4 12B
53
ZAYA1-8B
57
Pick ZAYA1-8B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemma 4 12B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Knowledge
+4.7 difference
Gemma 4 12B
ZAYA1-8B
N/A
$0 / $0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
256K
131K
Pick ZAYA1-8B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemma 4 12B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
ZAYA1-8B is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 57 to 53. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Gemma 4 12B gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 131K for ZAYA1-8B.
ZAYA1-8B is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 57 to 53. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 78.8% and 71%.
Gemma 4 12B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.8 versus 73.1. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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