Gemma 3 12B — Especificaciones
Compiled by Mustafa Ihsan from the vendor’s published documentation · Last updated
| Desarrollador | |
|---|---|
| Tipo | LLM (multimodal) |
| Modalidad | Texto, imagen → texto |
| Parámetros | 12B |
| Ventana de contexto | 128 K |
| Licencia | Gemma (abierta) |
| Pesos abiertos | Sí |
| Lanzado | 2025 |
| Precio de entrada | $0.05 /1M |
| Precio de salida | $0.15 /1M |
| Proveedores de API | Google AI Studio, OpenRouter, Ollama |
Ejecútelo localmente
| VRAM (4 bits) | ~8 GB |
|---|---|
| GPU mínima | RTX 4070 de 12 GB |
What is Gemma 3 12B?
Gemma 3 12B is the mid-size member of Google’s open Gemma 3 family: multimodal across text
and images, a 128K context, support for 140+ languages, and a footprint of about 8 GB at
4-bit — which puts it comfortably on an RTX 4070 12GB.
It occupies the position most people actually want from a local model. The 4B is small
enough to feel limited on anything demanding; the 27B needs a 16–24 GB card and pushes past
what a typical developer machine or mid-range gaming GPU offers. The 12B fits the hardware
most people already own while still handling multilingual work and image input properly. That
combination — vision, 140+ languages, 128K context, 8 GB — is the reason it turns up so often
in on-device and privacy-sensitive deployments. If you are choosing a first local model to
build against, this is the one that will run on the widest range of machines without feeling
like a compromise. Size your specific quantisation with the
Calculadora de VRAM before committing to a
card.
Gemma 3 12B pricing: API cost per 1M tokens
| Entrada (por cada millón de tokens) | $0.0500 |
|---|---|
| Salida (por cada millón de tokens) | $0.150 |
| Relación salida/entrada | 3× |
| Combinada (4:1 entrada:salida) | $0.0700 por 1 millón de tokens |
What Gemma 3 12B costs per month
Gasto mensual real con una mezcla entrada:salida de 4:1, es decir, la proporción que realmente genera una carga de trabajo típica de chat o RAG.
| Carga de trabajo | Tokens/mes | Coste mensual |
|---|---|---|
| Proyecto secundario | 1 millón de tokens de entrada / 0,25 millones de tokens de salida | $0.09 |
| Pequeño equipo | 20 millones de tokens de entrada / 5 millones de tokens de salida | $1.75 |
| Producción | 200 millones de tokens de entrada / 50 millones de tokens de salida | $18 |
Calcule sus propios números en la Calculadora de costos de API de IA.
Cheaper alternatives to Gemma 3 12B
| Modelo | Dólares por millón combinados | Usted ahorra |
|---|---|---|
| Mistral 7B abierta | $0.0220 | 69% cheaper |
| Llama 3.1 8B abierta | $0.0220 | 69% cheaper |
| Mistral NeMo 12B abierta | $0.0240 | 66% cheaper |
¿Autoalojarlo o pagar por la API?
Gemma 3 12B is open-weight, so you can run it yourself. It needs ~8 GB of VRAM at 4-bit (RTX 4070 12GB). Self-hosting only beats the API once your volume is high enough to keep that hardware busy — the calculadora de autohospedaje frente a API calcula el punto de equilibrio para su volumen de tokens.
Preguntas frecuentes
How much does Gemma 3 12B cost per 1M tokens?
Gemma 3 12B costs $0.0500 per 1M input tokens and $0.150 per 1M output tokens. At a typical 4:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $0.0700 per 1M tokens.
How much does Gemma 3 12B cost per month?
A small-team workload of 20M input and 5M output tokens a month costs about $1.75 on Gemma 3 12B. A side project (1M in / 0.25M out) costs roughly $0.09.
What is a cheaper alternative to Gemma 3 12B?
Mistral 7B is the strongest cheaper option in our database at $0.0220 per 1M blended — about 69% less than Gemma 3 12B. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting is an option.
Can I run Gemma 3 12B locally?
Yes. Gemma 3 12B is open-weight and needs about ~8 GB of VRAM at 4-bit quantisation (RTX 4070 12GB).
Why does Gemma 3 12B charge more for output than input?
Output tokens are generated one at a time and cannot be batched the way a prompt can, so they cost the provider more to serve. Gemma 3 12B charges 3× more for output, which is why prompt-heavy workloads are far cheaper to run than generation-heavy ones.
Los precios corresponden a las tarifas oficiales publicadas para la API principal del modelo y se revisan periódicamente conforme los proveedores los actualicen. No incluyen descuentos por volumen, procesamiento por lotes ni entradas en caché. Compare todos los modelos uno al lado del otro en la Base de datos de modelos de IA o el Clasificación de modelos de lenguaje grande (LLM).