Gemma 3 12B (free) vs Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct
Gemma 3 12B (free) (2026) and Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct (2026) are compact production models from Google DeepMind and Alibaba. Gemma 3 12B (free) ships a 33K-token context window, while Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct ships a 512k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing. The goal is to make the tradeoff clear before deeper testing.
Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct fits 16x more tokens; pick it for long-context work and Gemma 3 12B (free) for tighter calls.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-01-01 | 2026-02-24 |
| Context window | 33K | 512k |
| Parameters | — | 235B |
| Architecture | decoder only | MoE |
| License | Open Source | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Gemma 3 12B (free) | Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.04/1M tokens | - |
| Output price | $0.13/1M tokens | - |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Capability | Gemma 3 12B (free) | Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Function calling | No | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on structured outputs: Gemma 3 12B (free). Both models share the core language-model surface, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
Pricing coverage is uneven: Gemma 3 12B (free) has $0.04/1M input tokens and Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct has no token price sourced yet. Provider availability is 3 tracked routes versus 0. Treat unknown pricing as an integration gap, then verify the route you will actually call before estimating production spend.
Choose Gemma 3 12B (free) when provider fit and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct when long-context analysis and larger context windows are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency. For teams standardizing a stack, that distinction is often the difference between a benchmark win and a reliable deployment.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Gemma 3 12B (free) or Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct?
Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct supports 512k tokens, while Gemma 3 12B (free) supports 33K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Is Gemma 3 12B (free) or Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct open source?
Gemma 3 12B (free) is listed under Open Source. Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct is listed under Apache 2.0. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for structured outputs, Gemma 3 12B (free) or Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct?
Gemma 3 12B (free) has the clearer documented structured outputs signal in this comparison. If structured outputs is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Gemma 3 12B (free) and Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct?
Gemma 3 12B (free) is available on AWS Bedrock, OpenRouter, and GCP Vertex AI. Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct is available on the tracked providers still being sourced. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
When should I pick Gemma 3 12B (free) over Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct?
Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct fits 16x more tokens; pick it for long-context work and Gemma 3 12B (free) for tighter calls. If your workload also depends on provider fit, start with Gemma 3 12B (free); if it depends on long-context analysis, run the same evaluation with Qwen3.5-235B-A22B-Instruct.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.