Gemma 2vsGemma 3
Google DeepMind vs Google DeepMind — Side-by-side model comparison
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | Gemma 2 | Gemma 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Arena Rank | #26 | #19 |
| Context Window | 8K | 128K |
| Input Pricing | Free/1M tokens | Free/1M tokens |
| Output Pricing | Free/1M tokens | Free/1M tokens |
| Parameters | 27B | 27B |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Best For | On-device AI, research, fine-tuning | Open source, on-device, research |
| Release Date | Jun 27, 2024 | Mar 12, 2025 |
Gemma 2
Gemma 2 is Google's previous generation open-source model family, available in 2B, 9B, and 27B parameter sizes. Designed for researchers and developers, it provides strong performance for its size class on reasoning, coding, and general knowledge tasks. The model can be fine-tuned for specific domains and runs efficiently on consumer GPUs. Gemma 2 has been widely adopted in the research community for experiments in alignment, efficiency, and domain adaptation. Its permissive license allows commercial use.
View Google DeepMind profile →Gemma 3
Gemma 3 is Google's latest open-source model built from Gemini research, available in multiple sizes from 1B to 27B parameters. It supports multimodal inputs (text and images) and over 140 languages, making it one of the most versatile open-source models available. Gemma 3 is designed to run efficiently on consumer hardware, from laptops to mobile devices, democratizing access to capable AI. The model achieves competitive performance with much larger models through efficient architecture design and training techniques derived from the Gemini program.
View Google DeepMind profile →Key Differences: Gemma 2 vs Gemma 3
Gemma 3 ranks higher in arena benchmarks (#19) indicating stronger overall performance.
Gemma 3 supports a larger context window (128K), allowing it to process longer documents in a single request.
Gemma 2 has 27B parameters vs Gemma 3's 27B, which affects inference speed and capability.
When to use Gemma 2
- +Your use case involves on-device ai, research, fine-tuning
When to use Gemma 3
- +You need the highest quality output based on arena rankings
- +You need to process long documents (128K context)
- +Your use case involves open source, on-device, research
Cost Analysis
Both models have similar pricing. For a typical enterprise workload processing 100M tokens per month:
Gemma 2 monthly cost
$0
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
Gemma 3 monthly cost
$0
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
The Verdict
Gemma 3 wins our head-to-head comparison with 2 out of 5 category wins. It's the stronger choice for open source, on-device, research, though Gemma 2 holds an edge in on-device ai, research, fine-tuning.
Last compared: March 2026 · Data sourced from public benchmarks and official pricing pages