Gemma 4 12B vs Gemma 4 26B-A4B
Why this pair: Mid-size dense and mixture-of-experts Gemma 4 variants
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Google Deepmind | Google Deepmind |
| Family | Gemma 4 | Gemma 4 |
| Model | Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
| Version | Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-05-23 | 2026-03-11 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video, Audio | Unknown |
| Output modalities | Text | Unknown |
| Context window | 262,144 | 262,144 |
| Total parameters | 12,000,000,000 | 26,000,000,000 |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 4,000,000,000 |
| License | apache-2.0 | apache-2.0 |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Together Ai (Standard) | Deepinfra (Standard), Google Gemini (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
14 comparable fields · 5 material differences · Interactive comparison only; indexing gate not met
Gemma 4 12B Capabilities
Gemma 4 26B-A4B Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 31BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsimage, text |
Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 E2BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsaudio, image, text, video |
Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 E4BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsaudio, image, text, video |
Seed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed | vs | Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peersaudio, image, text, video |
Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 31BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsimage, text |
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 E2BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsimage, text |
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs | Gemma 4 E4BGoogle DeepMind | family variantsimage, text |
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs |  Muse Glimmer 30BMeta | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-ExpDeepSeek | vs | Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs |  GPT-5.4 MiniOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle DeepMind | vs | GPT-5.4 NanoOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Gemma 4 12B vs Gemma 4 26B-A4B FAQs
Is Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Gemma 4 12B and Gemma 4 26B-A4B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
Only Gemma 4 26B-A4B has a directly sourced input price: $0.070 per million tokens. Only Gemma 4 26B-A4B has a directly sourced output price: $0.34 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Gemma 4 12B is 262,144 and Gemma 4 26B-A4B is 262,144.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Gemma 4 12B is open weight; Gemma 4 26B-A4B is open weight.
Can Gemma 4 12B and Gemma 4 26B-A4B understand images?+
Gemma 4 12B is documented with image input; Gemma 4 26B-A4B is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Gemma 4 12B is — and Gemma 4 26B-A4B is —.
Do Gemma 4 12B and Gemma 4 26B-A4B support reasoning and tool use?+
Gemma 4 12B: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Gemma 4 26B-A4B: reasoning and tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
Gemma 4 12B has 1 sourced provider route; Gemma 4 26B-A4B has 4, so Gemma 4 26B-A4B has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Gemma 4 12B or Gemma 4 26B-A4B?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.