Gemma 3 12B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost
Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models
Gemma 3 introduces multimodality, supporting vision-language input and text outputs.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- ▲
- Input
- Output
- Context
- 131 K tokens
- Max output
- 16 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$0.050
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$0.150
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- —
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- No
- Released
- 12/01/2024
- Knowledge cutoff
- 2024-12
- API id
- google/gemma-3-12b-it
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind.
- Reasoning estimated
- ▲
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- ▲262 K tokens
- Max output
- ▲236 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- $0.077
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- $0.255
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.043
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- ▲04/02/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- —
- API id
- google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it
Which is the better API choice: Gemma 3 12B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
- Gemma 3 12B: cheapest input (35% less than Gemma 4 26B A4B )
- Gemma 3 12B: cheapest output
- Gemma 4 26B A4B : largest context (262 K)
- Gemma 4 26B A4B : the newest (04/02/2026)
- Gemma 4 26B A4B : most reasoning (estimated)
- Gemma 3 12B: the fastest (estimated)
Gemma 3 12B costs 35% less on input and 41% less on output than Gemma 4 26B A4B ($0.050 / $0.150 versus $0.077 / $0.255 per million tokens). Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts more context (262 K). On capabilities, Gemma 4 26B A4B has a reasoning mode.
What would your product cost?
Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.
With Gemma 3 12B you save $0.82 a month versus Gemma 4 26B A4B (38% less).
The 6 cheapest for this scenario (chat, last 12 months)
- 1Lyria 3 Pro Preview Google$0.00
- 2Lyria 3 Clip Preview Google$0.00
- 3Qwen3.7 Flash Qwen$0.97
- 4DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek$1.55
- 5Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral$1.90
- 6Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen$2.02
Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model
Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.
Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)
- 1Gemma 3 12B Google$0.004
- 2Gemma 4 26B A4B Google$0.006
- 3Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
- 4Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
- 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
- 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
- 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
- 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760
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Frequently asked questions
Which is the better API choice: Gemma 3 12B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
Gemma 3 12B costs 35% less on input and 41% less on output than Gemma 4 26B A4B ($0.050 / $0.150 versus $0.077 / $0.255 per million tokens). Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts more context (262 K). On capabilities, Gemma 4 26B A4B has a reasoning mode.
Which is cheaper: Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper: $0.050 per million input tokens and $0.150 per million output tokens, versus $0.077 / $0.255 for Gemma 4 26B A4B .
Which has more context: Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts 262 K tokens of context; Gemma 3 12B accepts 131 K.
Which is newer: Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
Gemma 4 26B A4B was released on 04/02/2026; Gemma 3 12B on 12/01/2024.
What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Gemma 3 12B and Gemma 4 26B A4B ?
With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Gemma 3 12B: $1.35; Gemma 4 26B A4B : $2.17 a month, at list price.
Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?
From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.
What does price per million tokens mean?
It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.
Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.