Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.6 Flash Google

54.1

Rank #33 Confirmed

Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct Microsoft

29.3

Rank #314 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 14.8.
  • Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.6 Flash and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct specifications
Gemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
ProviderGoogleMicrosoft
Noometry Index54.129.3
Released2026-07-212024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.75—
Output $ / M tokens$3.75—
Results tracked4632

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Coding14911101
DeepSWE46.7%—
FrontierCode34.4%—
LMArena WebDev1538—
SciCode52.7%—
WeirdML56.1%—
LiveBench Coding—20.3%
ALE-Bench715.52—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
APEX-Agents46.9%—
GDP.pdf14%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14851100
ARC-AGI-260.4%—
NYT Connections (extended)89%—
ARC-AGI-191.2%—
CritPt10.6%—
Chess Puzzles43%—
LiveBench Reasoning—15.9%
Mystery Game Puzzles30%—
DTBench95.5%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—30.3%
LMCA44.9%—
Adversarial NLI—58.1%
BIG-Bench Hard—79.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index154.25—
HellaSwag—77%
LiveBench—24%
WinoGrande—81.5%

Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Math15051151
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)58.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions70.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.2%—
ProofBench36%—
LiveBench Math—17.6%

Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Expert14881067
GPQA Diamond94.1%—
SimpleQA Verified66.2%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—90.7%
MMLU—75.7%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—58.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Vision1298—
Blueprint-Bench 231.2%—
Furniture Assembly23.3%—
LMArena Document1456—

Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14691058
LMArena Chinese15311061
LMArena French15041135
LMArena German14781080
LMArena Japanese1476966
LMArena Korean1431894
LMArena Russian14871111
LMArena Spanish14751111

Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14661087
LiveBench Instruction Following—47.2%

Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14741088

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Text14791110
LMArena Creative Writing14651083
LMArena Multi-Turn14811068
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1604—
LiveBench Language—12.9%

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.

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