Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Terra vs Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Terra OpenAI

59.2

Rank #17 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 Terra 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 Terra leads 81.6 to 33.4.
  • Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.6 Terra and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct specifications
GPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index59.233.0
Released2026-07-09—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$12—
Results tracked5217

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 57.7 (#19), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 32.9 (#268)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding14841130
DeepSWE69.6%—
FrontierCode41.3%—
CursorBench41.3%—
LMArena WebDev1522—
SciCode55%—
WeirdML78.3%—
ALE-Bench1,951—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 40.1 (#25), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
APEX-Agents58.2%—
BALROG53.2%—
GDP.pdf24.7%—
Vending-Bench 27,343—

Reasoning GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 60.7 (#21), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 21.7 (#214)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14681127
ARC-AGI-283.9%—
SimpleBench48.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark51.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)78.4%—
ARC-AGI-196.5%—
CritPt30%—
Chess Puzzles54%—
Mystery Game Puzzles35%—
DTBench93.3%—
LMCA55%—
Surface Evolver Bench83.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index159.62—

Math GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 81.6 (#12), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 33.4 (#202)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Math14661173
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)86%—
FrontierMath Tier 470.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.7%—
ProofBench74%—

Knowledge GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 61.2 (#30), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.2 (#229)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert14921108
GPQA Diamond93.3%—
SimpleQA Verified43.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 47.3 (#11), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1271—
Blueprint-Bench 230.8%—
Furniture Assembly54.2%—
LMArena Document1472—

Multilingual GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 54.4 (#44), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.6 (#263)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14391094
LMArena Chinese15131108
LMArena French14711110
LMArena German14601101
LMArena Japanese14571042
LMArena Korean1425954
LMArena Russian14501145
LMArena Spanish14481095

Instruction Following GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 76.4 (#40), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 57.6 (#268)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14541113

Long Context GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 44.4 (#68), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.0 (#255)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14511120

Writing & Preference GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 70.2 (#23), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.1 (#272)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Text14471138
LMArena Creative Writing14101107
LMArena Multi-Turn14491088
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1855—
EQ-Bench 41234—

Frequently asked questions

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

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

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

GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on coding benchmarks: 57.7 versus 32.9 in the Noometry coding category.

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

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

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