Model comparison
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Gemma 4 12B
Head-to-head evidence from 1 shared benchmark result across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet #132 (Estimated); Gemma 4 12B #137 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Gemma 4 12B share 1 comparable benchmark result. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 3 results are unique to Claude 3.5 Sonnet; 22 to Gemma 4 12B.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 1
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet only
- 3
- Gemma 4 12B only
- 22
- Comparable categories
- 2 / 8
Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemma 4 12B only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 1 shared benchmark result across 1 evidence category; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the cleaner BenchAlign overall profile here, landing at 47.74 versus 47.29. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.
Gemma 4 12B is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Gemma 4 12B gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 200K for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
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 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Δ | Gemma 4 12B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Math | Claude 3.5 Sonnet1.6 | Margin→ 75.9 | Gemma 4 12B77.5 |
| Knowledge | Claude 3.5 Sonnet59.4 | Margin→ 18.1 | Gemma 4 12B77.5 |
| Coding | Claude 3.5 Sonnet49.0 | MarginNo overlap | Gemma 4 12BNot measured |
| Reasoning | Claude 3.5 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Gemma 4 12B43.4 |
| Multimodal | Claude 3.5 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Gemma 4 12B69.1 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 59.4%B 78.8%Winner: Gemma 4 12BΔ 19.4GPQA: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 59.4%; Gemma 4 12B scored 78.8%. Gemma 4 12B wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Gemma 4 12B | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude 3.5 Sonnet$3 input / $15 output | Gemma 4 12BNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude 3.5 SonnetNot available | Gemma 4 12BNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude 3.5 SonnetNot available | Gemma 4 12BNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude 3.5 Sonnet200K | Gemma 4 12B256K | Gemma 4 12B lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Gemma 4 12B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-bench resultsSource | — | 36.3% | Not comparable |
Coding2 benchmarks
Reasoning4 benchmarks
KnowledgeGemma 4 12B wins11 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Gemma 4 12B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 59.4% | 78.8% | Gemma 4 12B leads |
| GPQA-DSource | — | 78.8% | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ProSource | — | 77.2% | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | — | 5.2% | Not comparable |
| MMMLUSource | — | 83.4% | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | — | 22.0% | Not comparable |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | — | 75.3% | Not comparable |
| AA-HLESource | — | 14.8% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | — | -51.9% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | — | 16.0% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | — | 80.8% | Not comparable |
MathGemma 4 12B wins3 benchmarks
Multimodal4 benchmarks
Inst. Following1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Gemma 4 12B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-IFBenchSource | — | 73.5% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Gemma 4 12B?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 47.74 to 47.29. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 59.4% and 78.8%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Gemma 4 12B?
Gemma 4 12B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 59.4. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Gemma 4 12B?
Gemma 4 12B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 1.6. Claude 3.5 Sonnet stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
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