Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.6

Rank #240 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct Microsoft

29.7

Rank #305 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in instruction following, where GPT-4.1 mini leads 73.7 to 51.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 48.9% for GPT-4.1 mini and 29.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct.
  • Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct specifications
GPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index33.629.7
Released2025-04-142024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output33K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.40—
Output $ / M tokens$1.60—
Results tracked4719

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Category by category

Coding GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%29.6%
LMArena Coding13671039
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
SciCode40.4%—
WeirdML37.6%—
BigCodeBench Complete—40.6%
CadEval16%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—

Reasoning Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13491028
ARC-AGI-20%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
ARC-AGI-13.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles7%—
Mystery Game Puzzles7%—
DTBench68.8%—
LMCA21.1%—
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01—

Math Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Math13431089
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202544.7%—
Omni-MATH49.1%—
MATH Level 587.3%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)4.5%—

Knowledge GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Expert1338984
GPQA Diamond65.8%—
SimpleQA Verified12.7%—
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Vision1181—

Multilingual GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13181000
LMArena Chinese13291016
LMArena French13581039
LMArena German13511006
LMArena Japanese1290899
LMArena Korean1298856
LMArena Russian13241004
LMArena Spanish13191059

Instruction Following GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13331023
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query1344996
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
LMArena Text13401050
LMArena Creative Writing13001024
LMArena Multi-Turn1354989
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1147—
WildBench83.8%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 30.6 versus 28.8 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.

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