Curiosity · AI Model

Gemma 3 4B

Gemma 3 4B is a 4-billion-parameter open-weights small language model from Google DeepMind, released March 2025. It is part of the third-generation Gemma family (1B / 4B / 12B / 27B), distilled from Gemini 2.0 research with substantial upgrades over Gemma 2: 128k context (up from 8k), native image input, tool-use friendly training, and multilingual coverage across 140+ languages. The 4B variant is the sweet spot for single-GPU or high-end laptop deployments.

Model specs

Vendor
Google DeepMind
Family
Gemma 3
Released
2025-03
Context window
128,000 tokens
Modalities
text, vision

Strengths

  • Rare multimodal + multilingual combo at 4B
  • 128k context in a tiny footprint
  • Permissive Gemma licence
  • Distilled from Gemini 2.0 research

Limitations

  • Below 12B Gemma-3 and 70B-class models on deep reasoning
  • Vision is image-only (no video)
  • Licence has usage restrictions akin to Llama
  • Fine-tune recipes still maturing on day-1

Use cases

  • Multimodal agents on a single GPU
  • Multilingual chat with 140+ languages
  • Long-document summarisation at 128k
  • Open fine-tuning and LoRA adaptation

Benchmarks

BenchmarkScoreAs of
MMLU (5-shot)≈60%2025-03
MMMU≈49%2025-03
LMSYS Arena (post-release)top small-model tier2025-03

Frequently asked questions

What is Gemma 3 4B?

Gemma 3 4B is a 4B-parameter open small LLM from Google DeepMind, released March 2025 with 128k context, image input, and 140+ language coverage.

How does it differ from Gemma 2 4B?

Gemma 3 adds multimodal vision input, extends context from 8k to 128k, improves multilingual coverage, and is distilled from newer Gemini 2.0 research.

Is Gemma 3 commercial-use friendly?

Yes — the Gemma licence permits research and commercial use, with a few restrictions similar to Llama's acceptable-use policy.

Sources

  1. Google DeepMind — Gemma 3 — accessed 2026-04-20
  2. Gemma 3 technical report — accessed 2026-04-20