Compare/Mistral Small 3 vs Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)

Mistral Small 3vsGemma 4 12B (Reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

Mistral

Mistral Small 3

Input
$0.1/M
Output
$0.3/M
Speed
157 tok/s
TTFT
0.53s
Google

Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.1/M
Output
$0.3/M
Speed
143 tok/s
TTFT
1.33s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Tie
Faster (tok/s)
Mistral Small 3
Lower Latency
Mistral Small 3
Benchmarks (5-6)
Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricMistral Small 3Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.1$0.1
Output ($/M tokens)$0.3$0.3
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Mistral Small 3$0.13
Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)$0.13

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Mistral Small 3
157 tok/s
Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)
143 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Mistral Small 3
0.53s
Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)
1.33s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
6.922.0
Coding Index
Math Index
4.3
GPQA Diamond
46.2%75.3%
MMLU-Pro
65.2%
LiveCodeBench
25.2%
AIME 2025
4.3%
MATH-500
71.5%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.1%14.8%
SciCode
23.6%38.2%
IFBench
26.4%73.5%
TerminalBench
18.2%
Mistral Small 35 wins
6 winsGemma 4 12B (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)?

Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) wins 6 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for Mistral Small 3. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Mistral Small 3 generates tokens faster at 157 tok/s vs 143 tok/s. Mistral Small 3 also has lower time-to-first-token (0.53s vs 1.33s).

When should I use Mistral Small 3 vs Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Mistral Small 3 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.