Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.6

Rank #240 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct Microsoft

27.9

Rank #328 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in instruction following, where GPT-4.1 mini leads 73.7 to 47.7.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Chess Puzzles: 7% for GPT-4.1 mini and 0% for Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct.
  • Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct specifications
GPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index33.627.9
Released2025-04-142024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output33K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.40—
Output $ / M tokens$1.60—
Results tracked4735

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Category by category

Coding GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13671093
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
SciCode40.4%—
WeirdML37.6%—
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%—
LiveBench Coding—15.5%
CadEval16%—
HumanEval+—59.1%
MBPP+—54.2%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—

Reasoning Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
Chess Puzzles7%0%
LMArena Hard Prompts13491072
ARC-AGI-20%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
ARC-AGI-13.5%—
CritPt0%—
LiveBench Reasoning—26.8%
Mystery Game Puzzles7%—
DTBench68.8%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—34.7%
LMCA21.1%—
Adversarial NLI—52.8%
BIG-Bench Hard—71.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01—
HellaSwag—76.7%
LiveBench—22.4%
WinoGrande—70.8%

Math Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Math13431111
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202544.7%—
Omni-MATH49.1%—
LiveBench Math—15.7%
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 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert13381045
GPQA Diamond65.8%—
SimpleQA Verified12.7%—
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—84.9%
MMLU—68.8%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—64%

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1181—

Multilingual GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13181021
LMArena Chinese13291021
LMArena French13581076
LMArena German13511044
LMArena Japanese1290935
LMArena Korean1298905
LMArena Russian13241022
LMArena Spanish13191085

Instruction Following GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13331053
LiveBench Instruction Following—39.1%
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context Too close to call

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13441044
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Text13401073
LMArena Creative Writing13001037
LMArena Multi-Turn13541018
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1147—
WildBench83.8%—
LiveBench Language—9.2%

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct?

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better for coding?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 30.6 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35.

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