Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.3 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.3

Rank #217 Confirmed

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct Microsoft

33.0

Rank #250 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 52.5 to 33.4.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct specifications
gpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index36.333.0
Released2025-08-05—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K—
Max output41K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.037—
Output $ / M tokens$0.17—
Results tracked4817

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

gpt-oss-120b: 33.5 (#256), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 32.9 (#268)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13801130
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
SciCode36%—
WeirdML48.2%—
ALE-Bench575.62—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.2 (#153), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

gpt-oss-120b: 20.0 (#245), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 21.7 (#214)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13641127
SimpleBench22.1%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles20%—
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
DTBench76.3%—
LMCA22.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.93—

Math gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 52.5 (#50), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 33.4 (#202)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Math13891173
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
Omni-MATH68.8%—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.4 (#96), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.2 (#229)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert13561108
GPQA Diamond75.8%—
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—

Multilingual gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 48.0 (#147), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.6 (#263)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13511094
LMArena Chinese13851108
LMArena French13691110
LMArena German13531101
LMArena Japanese13311042
LMArena Korean1282954
LMArena Russian13431145
LMArena Spanish13891095

Instruction Following gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.3 (#173), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 57.6 (#268)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13181113
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#278), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.0 (#255)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13191120
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.5 (#217), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.1 (#272)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Text13651138
LMArena Creative Writing12751107
LMArena Multi-Turn13401088
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct?

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.3 to 33.0 on the Noometry Index.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (33.5 vs 32.9); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has 17.

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