Gemma 3 introduces multimodality, supporting vision-language input and text outputs. It handles context windows up to 128k tokens, understands over 140 languages, and offers improved math, reasoning, and chat capabilities, including structu…
Model details →Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) vs Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512
Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 are evenly matched on 6 axes — pick the one whose provider, latency, or licensing fits your stack.
A balanced model in the Ministral 3 family, Ministral 3 8B is a powerful, efficient tiny language model with vision capabilities.
Model details →Side-by-side comparison
| Capability | Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) | Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Context window Maximum number of input tokens the model can attend to in a single request. | 33K | 262K | 🏆 Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 |
| Input price (per 1M) Cost per million input tokens billed by the provider. | $0.00 | $0.15 | 🏆 Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) |
| Output price (per 1M) Cost per million output tokens billed by the provider. | $0.00 | $0.15 | 🏆 Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) |
| Tool / function calling First-class support for emitting structured tool calls. | — | Yes | 🏆 Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 |
| Vision input Accepts image inputs alongside text. | Yes | Yes | Tie |
| Reasoning mode Internal chain-of-thought / extended-thinking support. | — | — | Tie |
Frequently asked questions
Is Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) better than Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 are evenly matched on 6 axes — pick the one whose provider, latency, or licensing fits your stack.
What's the price difference between Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Input: $0.00 vs $0.15 per 1M tokens. Output: $0.00 vs $0.15 per 1M tokens.
What context windows do Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 support?
Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) supports up to 33K tokens. Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 supports up to 262K tokens.
Do both Google: Gemma 3 12B (free) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 support tool calling?
Google: Gemma 3 12B (free): not advertised. Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512: yes.