Model comparison

GPT-4.1 nano vs Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.0 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 nano OpenAI

27.9

Rank #327 Confirmed

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct Microsoft

33.0

Rank #250 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 nano scores higher in 3 categories and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct in 5 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads 21.7 to 8.5.
  • Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 nano and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct specifications
GPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index27.933.0
Released2025-04-14—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output33K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.10—
Output $ / M tokens$0.40—
Results tracked3817

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Category by category

Coding Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 24.1 (#330), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 32.9 (#268)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13061130
Aider Polyglot8.9%—
SciCode25.9%—
WeirdML19%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-4.1 nano: 26.5 (#104), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard33%—

Reasoning Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 8.5 (#349), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 21.7 (#214)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts12861127
ARC-AGI-20%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark33.3%—
ARC-AGI-10%—
CritPt0%—
DTBench52.5%—
LMCA5.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index129.62—

Math Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 26.9 (#252), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 33.4 (#202)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Math12741173
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202528.9%—
Omni-MATH36.7%—
MATH Level 570%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)1%—

Knowledge Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 21.8 (#273), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.2 (#229)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert12721108
GPQA Diamond48.9%—
SimpleQA Verified6%—
MMLU-Pro55%—
GPQA (HELM)50.7%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1 nano: 29.2 (#113), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1063—

Multilingual GPT-4.1 nano leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 41.6 (#205), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.6 (#263)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English12601094
LMArena Chinese12701108
LMArena German12881101
LMArena Japanese11981042
LMArena Russian12611145
LMArena French—1110
LMArena Korean—954
LMArena Spanish—1095

Instruction Following GPT-4.1 nano leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 67.8 (#193), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 57.6 (#268)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following12671113
IFEval84.3%—

Long Context Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 23.7 (#296), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.0 (#255)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query12831120
Fiction.LiveBench25%—

Writing & Preference GPT-4.1 nano leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 40.5 (#243), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.1 (#272)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 nanoPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Text12851138
LMArena Creative Writing12601107
LMArena Multi-Turn12771088
EQ-Bench Creative Writing946—
WildBench81.2%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 nano better than Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct?

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.0 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-4.1 nano or Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct better for coding?

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 32.9 versus 24.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 nano and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 nano has 38 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has 17.

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