Google: Gemma 3 12B vs Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 3 12B is the pick when you need tool / function calling, Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecGoogle: Gemma 3 12BInference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo
ProviderGoogleInference.net
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.05$0.03
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.15$0.15
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.08$0.06
Cheaper than … of all models we track83%86%
Context window131K tokens (~197 pages)128K tokens (~192 pages)
Larger context than … of all models22%14%
Max output per response16K tokens (~12,300 words)8K tokens (~6,100 words)
Input typestext, imagetext
Output typestexttext
Free variantYesNo
Listed since2025-03-132026-09-12
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Google: Gemma 3 12BInference.net: Schematron V2 TurboDifference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$6.75$5.25Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo saves $1.50
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$7.50$5.10Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo saves $2.40
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$7.80$5.40Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo saves $2.40
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$4.90$3.30Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo saves $1.60
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$2.65$1.65Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo saves $1.00

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityGoogle: Gemma 3 12BInference.net: Schematron V2 TurboWhat it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes—call your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode——spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes—read screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input——accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search——answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)✓ Yes✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities——read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

DateModelInput / 1MOutput / 1M
2026-08-06Google: Gemma 3 12B$0.05$0.15

Which should you choose?

Choose Google: Gemma 3 12B if…

  • you need tool / function calling — to call your APIs and run agent loops; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo does not advertise it
  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 16K tokens (about 12,300 words) per response
  • you want to prototype at zero cost — a free variant is listed

Choose Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 20% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($5.25 vs $6.75 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-09-12, 18 months after the other

Frequently asked questions

Is Google: Gemma 3 12B better than Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo?

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 3 12B is the pick when you need tool / function calling, Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo when cost matters at scale. In short: Google: Gemma 3 12B when you need tool / function calling, you need image input, you generate long outputs in one go, you want to prototype at zero cost; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo when cost matters at scale, you want the newer model.

Which is cheaper, Google: Gemma 3 12B or Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo?

Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo is cheaper: $0.06 vs $0.08 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 20% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $5.25 against $6.75.

How much do Google: Gemma 3 12B and Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo cost per million tokens?

Google: Gemma 3 12B costs $0.05 per 1M input tokens and $0.15 per 1M output tokens; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo costs $0.03 input and $0.15 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Google: Gemma 3 12B or Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo?

Google: Gemma 3 12B: 131K tokens, about 197 pages, against 128K (about 192 pages) for Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo.

Do Google: Gemma 3 12B and Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Google: Gemma 3 12B: yes, Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo: not advertised. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Gemma 3 12B: yes, Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo: yes.

Can Google: Gemma 3 12B or Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo read images?

Only Google: Gemma 3 12B accepts image input; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo is text-only for input.

Is Google: Gemma 3 12B or Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo free to use?

Google: Gemma 3 12B has a free variant (google/gemma-3-12b-it:free). Free variants usually carry tighter rate limits.

What is the maximum output length of Google: Gemma 3 12B and Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo?

Google: Gemma 3 12B can write up to 16K tokens (about 12,300 words) per response; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo up to 8K (about 6,100 words).

When were Google: Gemma 3 12B and Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo released?

Google: Gemma 3 12B was listed on 2025-03-13; Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo on 2026-09-12.

Has the price of Google: Gemma 3 12B or Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo changed?

Google: Gemma 3 12B: input price raised 20% ($0.04 → $0.05/1M), output price raised 13% ($0.13 → $0.15/1M) on 2026-08-06. Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-12.

About the two models

Google

Google: Gemma 3 12B

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,...

Full Google: Gemma 3 12B specs →

Compare Google: Gemma 3 12B with other models

Compare Inference.net: Schematron V2 Turbo with other models

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