Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Google

40.8

Rank #144 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct Microsoft

29.7

Rank #305 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 60.9 to 27.1.
  • Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct specifications
Gemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
ProviderGoogleMicrosoft
Noometry Index40.829.7
Released2026-03-032024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.25—
Output $ / M tokens$1.50—
Results tracked3819

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Coding14001039
LMArena WebDev1256—
SciCode41.9%—
WeirdML52.2%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—29.6%
BigCodeBench Complete—40.6%
ALE-Bench797.73—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
DeepResearch Bench37.3%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14071028
Kagi LLM Benchmark67.2%—
NYT Connections (extended)8.2%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles25%—
EnigmaEval3%—
Thematic Generalization63.3%—
DTBench76.8%—
LMCA35%—
Epoch Capabilities Index144.47—
ForecastBench54.4—

Math Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Math14281089
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)27.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202580%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Expert1398984
GPQA Diamond81.8%—
Humanity's Last Exam8.6%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Vision1240—

Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14111000
LMArena Chinese14611016
LMArena French14241039
LMArena German14291006
LMArena Japanese1413899
LMArena Korean1392856
LMArena Russian14201004
LMArena Spanish14211059

Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13771023

Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query1394996

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LitePhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Text14161050
LMArena Creative Writing14011024
LMArena Multi-Turn1417989

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.8 versus 28.8 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.

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