Compare / MiniCPM5 1B vs Gemma 3 270M
MiniCPM5 1B vs Gemma 3 270M
Updated November 2026
Verdict
MiniCPM5 1B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 29.5 vs 12.8. On the 5 benchmarks both labs report, MiniCPM5 1B wins 5 and Gemma 3 270M wins 0. Both need about 1.4 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization. Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself.
Pick MiniCPM5 1B if…
- you want the strongest model overall
- you need precise instruction following
- you build agents that call tools
- you work with long documents
- you need a permissive license (Apache-2.0)
- you want the more widely used model (more quantized builds and community support)
Pick Gemma 3 270M if…
No clear advantage in the data we have.
Specifications
| MiniCPM5 1B | Gemma 3 270M | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 29.5 (likely 20–42) | 12.8 (likely 12–14) |
| Lab | OpenBMB (MiniCPM) · China | Google · United States |
| Released | 2026-05-21 | 2025-08-14 |
| Parameters | 1.1B (dense) | 270M (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~1.4 GB | ~0.7 GB |
| Context window | 131K tokens | 32K tokens |
| Input | text | text |
| Reasoning | Hybrid (thinking on/off) | No thinking |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Gemma |
| API price / 1M tokens | Self-host only | Self-host only |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | 257.9K | 60.4K |
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 | MiniCPM5 1B | Gemma 3 270M |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | ≈ 53 | 5.5✓ |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 27.8✓ | 22.4✓ |
| Humanity's Last Exam Reasoning | 6.5✓ | 3.6✓ |
| AIME Math | ≈ 21 | 2.3✓ |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | ≈ 21 | 0.3✓ |
| τ²-Bench Agentic | 81.0✓ | 9.1✓ |
| IFBench Instruction following | 49.3✓ | 12.1✓ |
| AA-LCR Long context | 6.0✓ | 0.0✓ |
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, MiniCPM5 1B or Gemma 3 270M?
MiniCPM5 1B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 29.5 vs 12.8. On the 5 benchmarks both labs report, MiniCPM5 1B wins 5 and Gemma 3 270M wins 0.
Which is cheaper to run?
Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself. Both need about 1.4 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization.
Which has the longer context window?
MiniCPM5 1B has the longer context window: 131K tokens against 32K.
Can I use MiniCPM5 1B and Gemma 3 270M commercially?
MiniCPM5 1B is released under Apache-2.0 and Gemma 3 270M under Gemma. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.