# Introducing Gemma 4 12B: a unified, encoder-free multimodal model

DevFeed: [Introducing Gemma 4 12B: a unified, encoder-free multimodal model](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/introducing-gemma-4-12b-a-unified-encoder-free-multimodal-model-6204.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-gemma-4-12b-a-unified-encoder-free-multimodal-model/>)

Author: Olivier Lacombe

Published: 2026-06-09T14:10:19Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Google DeepMind News](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/google-deepmind-news.md>)

Topics: [gemma4](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gemma4.md>), [multimodal](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/multimodal.md>), [Language models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/language-models.md>), [moe](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/moe.md>), [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [Latency](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/latency.md>)

Tags: [apache](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apache.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [gemma](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gemma.md>), [laptop](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/laptop.md>), [latency](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/latency.md>), [llm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llm.md>), [mixture-of-experts-moe](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mixture-of-experts-moe.md>), [multimodal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multimodal.md>), [none](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/none.md>)

## AI overview

Gemma 4 12B is an encoder-free multimodal model designed to deliver agentic intelligence locally on laptops. It combines native vision and audio processing, near-26B benchmark performance, a reduced memory footprint, and Apache 2.0 licensing.

## Source excerpt

An overview of Gemma 4 12B, a model designed to bring high-performance multimodal intelligence directly to your laptop.