| Gemma 3 | Llama 3.1/3.2 | DeepSeek | Mistral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | Gemma Terms of Use | Llama License (usage restrictions) | MIT (no restrictions) | Apache 2.0 or proprietary |
| Largest open model | 27B | 405B | 671B (MoE, 37B active) | Mixtral 8x22B |
| Smallest model | 270M | 1B | 1.5B (distilled) | 7B |
| Multimodal | Text + Image (4B+) | Text + Image (11B+) | Text only (V3) | Text + Image (Pixtral) |
| Context window | 128K | 128K | 128K | 128K (Mistral Large) |
| Official specialized variants | 6+ (Med, Code, Shield, etc.) | None (community only) | R1 distilled variants | Codestral (code) |
| On device / mobile variant | Gemma 3n (E2B/E4B) | Llama 3.2 1B/3B | R1 Distill 1.5B | No official mobile variant |
Approximate LMArena Elo ratings (flagship open models)
💎
1338 Elo
Gemma 3 27B
27B params
🦙
1360 Elo
Llama 3.1 405B
405B params
🐋
1380 Elo
DeepSeek V3.2
671B (37B active)
🌊
1320 Elo
Mistral Large
123B params
Gemma's unique position
Gemma 3 27B delivers performance comparable to models many times its size. At 27B parameters, it achieves an Elo in the same range as Llama 3.1 405B on some benchmarks, while requiring a fraction of the hardware. This makes Gemma one of the most efficient open models available: frontier quality relative to its resource requirements.
Choosing the right open model
If you need the most permissive license with zero restrictions, choose DeepSeek (MIT). If you need the absolute largest open model for maximum quality, choose Llama 3.1 405B. If you need the best quality per parameter with official specialized variants and Google ecosystem integration, choose Gemma. If you are building primarily for mobile or edge devices, Gemma 3n and Gemma 3 4B are among the strongest options available.