Gemma 3 4B IT vs Qwen3.5 4B

Qwen3.5 4B leads llmrun Score 98.5 to 64.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.

Model A · Google

Gemma 3 4B IT

64.0llmrun Score

4.3B · Gemma Terms · Feb 2025

Vision

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3.5 4B

98.5llmrun Score

4.7B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Feb 2026

VisionFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3.5 4B if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
98.5 vs 64.0
Also does function-calling
Gemma 3 4B IT doesn't list it
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Gemma Terms
Newer release
Feb 2026 vs Feb 2025

Gemma 3 4B IT: no clear edge over Qwen3.5 4B in the data we have.

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

MemoryGemma 3 4B ITQwen3.5 4B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~62 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~54 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 128K

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~82 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~72 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~103 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~89 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~231 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~201 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~410 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~357 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~176 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~153 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~30 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~26 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~135 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~117 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 3 4B IT

Q4_K_M · ~135 tok/s

5 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.5 4B

Q4_K_M · ~117 tok/s

3.4 GB · up to 256K

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Gemma 3 4B IT Qwen3.5 4B

Overall

Gemma 3 4B IT

64.057–72

Qwen3.5 4B

98.594–103

Reasoning

Gemma 3 4B IT

68.855–82

Qwen3.5 4B

no data

Gemma 3 4B IT · #103 of 106 open models · #34 of 36 that fit 24 GB

Qwen3.5 4B · #64 of 106 open models · #12 of 36 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

2 shared boards: Gemma 3 4B IT leads 0, Qwen3.5 4B leads 2 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026

BoardGemma 3 4B ITQwen3.5 4B

AIME 2024/2025

Gemma 3 4B IT

7.5%#66/88 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Qwen3.5 4B

55.8%#43/88 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

MMLU-Pro

Gemma 3 4B IT

43.6%#92/146 open

IndependentTIGER-Lab

Qwen3.5 4B

79.1%#26/146 open

IndependentTIGER-Lab

5 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

Only Gemma 3 4B IT (4)

Only Qwen3.5 4B (1)

CritPt0.0%

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantGemma 3 4B ITQwen3.5 4B

Q2_K

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.0 GB1.7 GB file

32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.5 GB2.2 GB file

32K 3.0 GB · 128K 5.0 GB

Q3_K_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.1 GB1.9 GB file

32K 6.7 GB · 128K 21.5 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.5 GB2.1 GB file

32K 3.0 GB · 128K 5.0 GB

Q3_K_M

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.3 GB2.1 GB file

32K 6.9 GB · 128K 21.7 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.7 GB2.3 GB file

32K 3.2 GB · 128K 5.3 GB

Q4_0

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.4 GB2.4 GB file

32K 7.0 GB · 128K 21.8 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.8 GB2.6 GB file

32K 3.3 GB · 128K 5.3 GB

Q4_K_M

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.8 GB2.5 GB file

32K 7.5 GB · 128K 22.3 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.3 GB2.7 GB file

32K 3.8 GB · 128K 5.8 GB

Q5_K_M

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.4 GB2.8 GB file

32K 8.0 GB · 128K 22.8 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.8 GB3.1 GB file

32K 4.3 GB · 128K 6.3 GB

Q6_K

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.9 GB3.2 GB file

32K 8.5 GB · 128K 23.3 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

4.3 GB3.5 GB file

32K 4.8 GB · 128K 6.8 GB

Q8_0

Gemma 3 4B IT

4.7 GB4.1 GB file

32K 9.4 GB · 128K 24.1 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

5.1 GB4.5 GB file

32K 5.6 GB · 128K 7.7 GB

20 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.3 GB1.3 GB file

32K 5.9 GB · 128K 20.7 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

1.8 GB1.5 GB file

32K 2.3 GB · 128K 4.3 GB

IQ2_XS

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.4 GB1.4 GB file

32K 6.0 GB · 128K 20.8 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

IQ2_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.5 GB1.4 GB file

32K 6.1 GB · 128K 20.9 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

IQ2_M

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.6 GB1.6 GB file

32K 6.2 GB · 128K 21.0 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.0 GB1.8 GB file

32K 2.5 GB · 128K 4.6 GB

IQ3_XXS

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.8 GB1.7 GB file

32K 6.5 GB · 128K 21.2 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.3 GB1.9 GB file

32K 2.8 GB · 128K 4.8 GB

Q2_K_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

1.9 GB1.6 GB file

32K 6.5 GB · 128K 21.3 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

IQ3_XS

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.0 GB1.9 GB file

32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.4 GB2.4 GB file

32K 2.9 GB · 128K 4.9 GB

IQ3_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.0 GB1.9 GB file

32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

IQ3_M

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.1 GB2.0 GB file

32K 6.8 GB · 128K 21.5 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.6 GB2.5 GB file

32K 3.1 GB · 128K 5.1 GB

Q3_K_L

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.4 GB2.2 GB file

32K 7.0 GB · 128K 21.8 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

2.9 GB2.7 GB file

32K 3.4 GB · 128K 5.4 GB

IQ4_XS

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.5 GB2.3 GB file

32K 7.2 GB · 128K 22.0 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.0 GB2.5 GB file

32K 3.5 GB · 128K 5.5 GB

IQ4_NL

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.7 GB2.4 GB file

32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.1 GB2.6 GB file

32K 3.6 GB · 128K 5.6 GB

Q4_1

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.7 GB2.6 GB file

32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.1 GB2.8 GB file

32K 3.6 GB · 128K 5.6 GB

Q4_K_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.7 GB2.4 GB file

32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.1 GB2.6 GB file

32K 3.6 GB · 128K 5.6 GB

Q4_K_L

Gemma 3 4B IT

2.9 GB2.7 GB file

32K 7.5 GB · 128K 22.3 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.3 GB3.2 GB file

32K 3.8 GB · 128K 5.8 GB

Q5_0

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.0 GB2.8 GB file

32K 7.6 GB · 128K 22.4 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

Q5_1

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.3 GB3.0 GB file

32K 7.9 GB · 128K 22.7 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

not listed

Q5_K_S

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.3 GB2.8 GB file

32K 7.9 GB · 128K 22.7 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.7 GB3.0 GB file

32K 4.2 GB · 128K 6.2 GB

Q5_K_L

Gemma 3 4B IT

3.4 GB3.0 GB file

32K 8.1 GB · 128K 22.8 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

3.9 GB3.6 GB file

32K 4.4 GB · 128K 6.4 GB

BF16

Gemma 3 4B IT

9.5 GB7.8 GB file

32K 14.1 GB · 128K 28.9 GB

Qwen3.5 4B

9.8 GB8.4 GB file

32K 10.3 GB · 128K 12.3 GB

How to run each

Gemma 3 4B IT

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/gemma-3-4b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Gemma 3 4B IT →

Qwen3.5 4B

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.5-4B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Qwen3.5 4B →

Specifications

Specifications of Gemma 3 4B IT and Qwen3.5 4B
Spec	Gemma 3 4B IT	Qwen3.5 4B
Publisher	Google	Alibaba
Parameters	4.3B	4.7B
Architecture	—	Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration
Context	—	256K tokens
Modalities	Vision	Vision, Function-calling
License	Gemma Terms	Apache 2.0
Released	Feb 2025	Feb 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 4B?

Qwen3.5 4B leads llmrun Score 98.5 to 64.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Qwen3.5 4B for higher llmrun Score and also does function-calling.

Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 4B?

At Q4_K_M, Gemma 3 4B IT requires 2.8 GB while Qwen3.5 4B needs 3.3 GB, making Gemma 3 4B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.

Which is faster on RTX 4090?

Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 231 tok/s for Gemma 3 4B IT (Q4_K_M) and 201 tok/s for Qwen3.5 4B (Q4_K_M), so Gemma 3 4B IT is faster. Estimates, ±20%.

Can I run Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 4B on a 16 GB GPU?

Gemma 3 4B IT fits at Q4_K_M; Qwen3.5 4B fits at Q4_K_M.