Head to head
Qwen 3 8B vs Gemma 3 12B
Side-by-side specs, benchmarks, and a verdict by use case.
| Spec | Qwen 3 8B | Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 8B | 12B |
| Author | Alibaba | |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Gemma |
| Context window | 0k | 0k |
| VRAM at Q4 | 5 GB | 7 GB |
| VRAM at Q5 | 6 GB | 9 GB |
| VRAM at Q8 | 9 GB | 13 GB |
| VRAM at FP16 | 16 GB | 24 GB |
| Use cases | chat, general, reasoning, multilingual | chat, general, vision, multilingual |
Verdict
Both models sit in a similar size class. The pick depends on tags, license, and benchmarks rather than raw parameter count.
For unambiguous commercial use, Qwen 3 8B has the safer license (Apache 2.0) compared to Gemma.