Model comparison · YOLO12 vs YOLOv10

YOLO12 vs YOLOv10

A size-tier-by-size-tier comparison of YOLO12 and YOLOv10: published COCO accuracy, parameter counts, licensing and which one to reach for. Every figure is the model authors' own, linked to its source.

CompareYOLO12
AgainstYOLOv10
50%fewer params

mAP comparison

YOLO12YOLOv10
35.541.146.852.458.0mAPNanoSmallMediumLargeExtra largeModel size tierYOLO12n: 40.6 mAP, 2.6M paramsYOLO12s: 48.0 mAP, 9.3M paramsYOLO12m: 52.5 mAP, 20.2M paramsYOLO12l: 53.7 mAP, 26.4M paramsYOLO12x: 55.2 mAP, 59.1M paramsYOLOv10n: 38.5 mAP, 2.3M paramsYOLOv10s: 46.3 mAP, 7.2M paramsYOLOv10m: 51.1 mAP, 15.4M paramsYOLOv10l: 53.2 mAP, 24.4M paramsYOLOv10x: 54.4 mAP, 29.5M params

YOLO12

  • Nano 40.6
  • Small 48.0
  • Medium 52.5
  • Large 53.7
  • Extra large 55.2

YOLOv10

  • Nano 38.5
  • Small 46.3
  • Medium 51.1
  • Large 53.2
  • Extra large 54.4
COCO mAP at 640px, as published by each model’s authors. The y axis spans 35.5 to 58.0 rather than starting at zero, so small differences stay visible. Points are the published checkpoints; the joining lines are for reading order only.

Accuracy and size, tier by tier

Each row pairs the equivalent rung of both size ladders, so the numbers sit side by side at comparable capacity. Every figure is the model authors’ own.

  • COCO mAP50-95 @ 640px
  • mAP: higher is better
  • Params (M): lower is better
YOLO12 and YOLOv10 compared at each size tier: published COCO mAP50-95 at 640px and parameter counts in millions.
TierYOLO12YOLOv10Δ mAP
ModelmAPParamsModelmAPParams
NanoYOLO12n40.62.6MYOLOv10n38.52.3M+2.1
SmallYOLO12s48.09.3MYOLOv10s46.37.2M+1.7
MediumYOLO12m52.520.2MYOLOv10m51.115.4M+1.4
LargeYOLO12l53.726.4MYOLOv10l53.224.4M+0.5
Extra largeYOLO12x55.259.1MYOLOv10x54.429.5M+0.8

Δ mAP is YOLO12 minus YOLOv10: positive means YOLO12 is ahead at that tier. Sources: YOLO12 docs · YOLO12 paper · YOLOv10 docs · YOLOv10 paper

YOLOv10 also ships YOLOv10b, which sits between the rungs above and has no direct counterpart in YOLO12, so it is left out of the paired rows rather than matched to an unequal one.

Additional information

  • YOLO12 posts the higher published COCO mAP at all 5 matched size tiers, averaging 1.30 mAP ahead of YOLOv10. The gap is widest at the nano tier, where YOLO12 leads by 2.1 mAP. At the top of each range, YOLO12 reaches 55.2 mAP against 54.4.

  • 50% fewer parameters at the extra large tier. YOLOv10x reaches 54.4 mAP from 29.5M parameters against YOLO12x at 55.2 mAP from 59.1M, so the saving costs 0.8 mAP. No checkpoint from either family matches a larger one from the other outright.

    Parameter count is not latency. It is a good proxy for download size and memory, but throughput depends on your hardware, batch size and export format, so measure on your own target.

YOLO12

The attention-centric generation, between YOLO11 and YOLO26.

Released
2025 · Tian, Ye & Doermann (UB / UCAS)
License
AGPL-3.0
Framework
Ultralytics (PyTorch)
Tasks
Detect, Segment, Classify, Pose, OBB

An attention-centric YOLO: area attention and residual ELAN blocks replace some of the pure-convolution stack, buying about a point of mAP over YOLO11 at a similar size.

Download YOLO12 weights →

YOLOv10

The first popular NMS-free, end-to-end YOLO.

Released
2024 · Tsinghua University (THU-MIG)
License
AGPL-3.0
Framework
Built on Ultralytics (PyTorch)
Tasks
Detect

The first widely used YOLO that skips the NMS post-processing step, using paired training heads so inference is truly end to end and low latency.

Download YOLOv10 weights →

YOLO12 and YOLOv10 against the whole lineage

YOLO12 and YOLOv10 against every other detector here, on one shared scale. The rest are dimmed; hover any row to bring it back.

Every YOLO detector in this section, with release year, publisher, published COCO mAP50-95 range at 640px, parameter-count range and licence.
ModelReleasedmAP rangeParams rangeLicence
YOLO26202640.9 to 57.52.4M to 55.7MAGPL-3.0
YOLO12202540.6 to 55.22.6M to 59.1MAGPL-3.0
YOLO11202439.5 to 54.72.6M to 56.9MAGPL-3.0
YOLOv10202438.5 to 54.42.3M to 29.5MAGPL-3.0
YOLOv9202438.3 to 55.62.0M to 58.1MGPL-3.0
YOLOv8202337.3 to 53.93.2M to 68.2MAGPL-3.0
YOLOv5 (v5u)202034.3 to 53.22.6M to 97.2MAGPL-3.0