Qwen3 8B vs Gemma 3 27B it
Neither has a clear lead on the index. Qwen3 8B is the smaller download at 5.0 GB, so it runs on cheaper hardware.
| Qwen3 8B | Gemma 3 27B it | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 5 | 5 |
| Class | Below every hosted tier | Below every hosted tier |
| Weights | 5.0 GB | 17 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 8.2B | 27.4B |
| Max context | 40k | 128k |
| API price per 1M | $0.117 in / $0.455 out | $0.08 in / $0.45 out |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | Gemma Terms of Use |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB $1,269 |
| Summarising | good | good |
| Translation | usable | good |
| Everyday coding | usable | usable |
| Reasoning & maths | don’t | usable |
| Agentic work | don’t | don’t |
Ratings are coarse on purpose. Speeds and pay-back depend on the machine — open either model's page for the full list, or see both against the frontier. Context is 32k throughout.