| Gemma 4 | Llama 3.1/3.2 | DeepSeek | Mistral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | Apache 2.0 | Llama License (usage restrictions) | MIT (no restrictions) | Apache 2.0 or proprietary |
| Largest open model | 31B (Dense) | 405B | 671B (MoE, 37B active) | Mixtral 8x22B |
| Smallest model | E2B (effective 2B) | 1B | 1.5B (distilled) | 7B |
| Multimodal | Text + Image + Video + Audio (edge) | Text + Image (11B+) | Text only (V3) | Text + Image (Pixtral) |
| Context window | 256K (26B/31B), 128K (edge) | 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 4 E2B / E4B | Llama 3.2 1B/3B | R1 Distill 1.5B | No official mobile variant |
Arena AI text leaderboard ratings (flagship open models, April 2026)
1452 (#3 open)
Gemma 4 31B
31B params (Dense)
1441 (#6 open)
Gemma 4 26B
26B params (MoE, 4B active)
1360
Llama 3.1 405B
405B params
1365
Gemma 3 27B
27B params
Gemma's unique position
Gemma 4 31B delivers performance that outcompetes models 20x its size, ranking #3 among all open models on Arena AI. The 26B MoE variant achieves similar quality with only 3.8B active parameters, making it one of the fastest open models available. This makes Gemma 4 the most efficient open model family available: frontier quality relative to its resource requirements.
Choosing the right open model
If you need the most permissive license with zero restrictions, both Gemma 4 (Apache 2.0) and DeepSeek (MIT) qualify. 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 4. If you are building primarily for mobile or edge devices, Gemma 4 E2B and E4B are among the strongest options available.