Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Luna vs Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct

GPT-5.6 Luna is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Luna OpenAI

54.6

Rank #30 Confirmed

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct Microsoft

33.0

Rank #250 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.6 Luna scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GPT-5.6 Luna leads 77.7 to 33.4.
  • Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.6 Luna and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct specifications
GPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index54.633.0
Released2026-07-09—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.20—
Output $ / M tokens$1.20—
Results tracked5217

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 54.5 (#28), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 32.9 (#268)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding14661130
DeepSWE67.2%—
FrontierCode39.8%—
CursorBench35.9%—
LMArena WebDev1519—
SciCode53.6%—
WeirdML60.9%—
ALE-Bench1,667—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Luna: 34.4 (#45), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
APEX-Agents43%—
BALROG45.6%—
GDP.pdf22.7%—
Vending-Bench 24,095—

Reasoning GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 47.6 (#43), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 21.7 (#214)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14511127
ARC-AGI-259.5%—
SimpleBench46.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark49.1%—
NYT Connections (extended)69.4%—
ARC-AGI-188%—
CritPt20.6%—
Chess Puzzles40%—
Mystery Game Puzzles21%—
DTBench89.1%—
LMCA48.5%—
Surface Evolver Bench61.9%—
Epoch Capabilities Index156.39—

Math GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 77.7 (#14), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 33.4 (#202)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Math14581173
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)82.1%—
FrontierMath Tier 461%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202598.3%—
ProofBench60%—

Knowledge GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 58.5 (#34), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.2 (#229)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert14781108
GPQA Diamond91.6%—
SimpleQA Verified41%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Luna: 42.7 (#28), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1258—
Blueprint-Bench 222.6%—
Furniture Assembly42.5%—
LMArena Document1457—

Multilingual GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 52.8 (#78), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.6 (#263)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14171094
LMArena Chinese14701108
LMArena French14561110
LMArena German14541101
LMArena Japanese14111042
LMArena Korean1415954
LMArena Russian14281145
LMArena Spanish14481095

Instruction Following GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 75.6 (#57), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 57.6 (#268)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14371113

Long Context GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 43.9 (#82), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.0 (#255)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14361120

Writing & Preference GPT-5.6 Luna leads

GPT-5.6 Luna: 68.0 (#29), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.1 (#272)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Text14311138
LMArena Creative Writing13961107
LMArena Multi-Turn14341088
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1829—
EQ-Bench 41156—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.6 Luna better than Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct?

GPT-5.6 Luna is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-5.6 Luna or Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct better for coding?

GPT-5.6 Luna scores higher on coding benchmarks: 54.5 versus 32.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.6 Luna and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.6 Luna has 52 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has 17.

Related comparisons

Go deeper