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Head-to-head comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Gemma 3 12B (Google) and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 15 September 2026

As of 15 September 2026, Gemma 3 12B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#148 vs #150); Gemma 3 12B is 1.3× cheaper per output token ($0.15/1M vs $0.20/1M); and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning offers the longer context window (262K vs 131K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose Gemma 3 12B if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #148 against #150 (30.7 vs 30.2 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.15/1M output tokens against $0.20/1M, about 1.3× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.05/1M against $0.08/1M.

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning if…

  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 131K.
  • you want provider choice — 4 listed API providers against 1.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was listed 11 August 2026, Gemma 3 12B 13 March 2025.

Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Gemma 3 12B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
FieldGemma 3 12BGoogleNemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIA
ModelCap Index position#148#150
Index score30.730.2
EvidenceMeasuredEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$0.05$0.08
Output price / 1M tokens$0.15$0.20
Context window131K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens16K131K
API providers listed14
Weight accessGated accessRestricted license
Input modalitiesText, ImageText
First listed13 March 202511 August 2026
PublisherGoogleNVIDIA

Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · publisher-corpus-prior over 176 held-out anchors (25%); launch card against 3 resolved peers on 11 rows (75%); optimism haircut 2.8 from cross-lab-probe; shrunk 1.2 up toward the measured corpus. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Public benchmark boards where Gemma 3 12B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a published result
BoardGemma 3 12BNemotron 3.5 LightningLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)13161293–1339—Only one result
BFCL V4UC Berkeley (Gorilla)30.4Prompt—Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis—13.6intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecifiedOnly one result
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis—24.3%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Nemotron 3.5 Lightning":reasoning=trueOnly one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis—10.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Nemotron 3.5 Lightning":reasoning=trueOnly one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: common questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Gemma 3 12B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 15 September 2026: #148 against #150. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Gemma 3 12B cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.15/1M against $0.20/1M. Input tokens are $0.05/1M for Gemma 3 12B and $0.08/1M for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $0.17 for Gemma 3 12B versus $0.26 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. Gemma 3 12B costs 32.7% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemma 3 12B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 131K.

Which is better for coding, Gemma 3 12B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Gemma 3 12B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning open-weight models?

Gemma 3 12B: Gated access. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Restricted license. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Gemma 3 12B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Gemma 3 12B and 4 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Gemma 3 12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 15 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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