Compare / Phi-4 vs Gemma 3 12B
Phi-4 vs Gemma 3 12B
Updated November 2026
Verdict
Phi-4 scores higher on the Small LM Index: 44.7 vs 28.4, although their likely ranges overlap, so the lead is not certain. On the 2 benchmarks both labs report, Phi-4 wins 2 and Gemma 3 12B wins 0. Gemma 3 12B is smaller: it needs about 9 GB of memory at 4-bit, against 11.4 GB for Phi-4. Their API prices are similar: $0.070 and $0.060 per million tokens.
Pick Phi-4 if…
- you want the strongest model overall
- you need a permissive license (MIT)
Pick Gemma 3 12B if…
- you have limited memory (about 9 GB at 4-bit)
- you work with long documents
- you need image input
Specifications
| Phi-4 | Gemma 3 12B | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 44.7 (likely 35–55) | 28.4 (likely 22–36) |
| Lab | Microsoft (Phi) · United States | Google · United States |
| Released | 2024-12-12 | 2025-03-12 |
| Parameters | 14.7B (dense) | 12.2B (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~11.4 GB | ~9 GB |
| Context window | 16K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Input | text | text, image |
| Reasoning | No thinking | No thinking |
| License | MIT | Gemma |
| API price / 1M tokens | $0.070 ($0.056 in, $0.11 out) | $0.060 ($0.040 in, $0.12 out) |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | 327K | 359.7K |
Benchmarks
Higher is better. Bold marks the winner where both labs report a score. ≈ marks the index model's estimate for a score that wasn't reported, ✓ an independent measurement and * a score measured by another lab.
| Benchmark | Phi-4 | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | 70.4 | 60.6 |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 56.1 | 40.9 |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | ≈ 50 | 24.6 |
Scores are mostly reported by each lab with its own settings, so small gaps are noise. See the methodology. Open in the interactive comparison to add more models.
Questions
Which is better, Phi-4 or Gemma 3 12B?
Phi-4 scores higher on the Small LM Index: 44.7 vs 28.4, although their likely ranges overlap, so the lead is not certain. On the 2 benchmarks both labs report, Phi-4 wins 2 and Gemma 3 12B wins 0.
Which is cheaper to run?
Their API prices are similar: $0.070 and $0.060 per million tokens. Gemma 3 12B is smaller: it needs about 9 GB of memory at 4-bit, against 11.4 GB for Phi-4.
Which has the longer context window?
Gemma 3 12B has the longer context window: 128K tokens against 16K.
Can I use Phi-4 and Gemma 3 12B commercially?
Phi-4 is released under MIT and Gemma 3 12B under Gemma. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.