Model comparison
Grok-3 mini vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok-3 mini scores higher in 7 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in instruction following, where Grok-3 mini leads 78.5 to 51.9.
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 41.2 | 29.3 |
| Released | 2025-04-09 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 35 | 32 |
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Category by category
Coding Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 40.8 (#131), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1379 | 1101 |
| Aider Polyglot | 49.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 42.6% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
Reasoning Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct leads
Grok-3 mini: 13.6 (#334), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1375 | 1100 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.4% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 61.3% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 16.5% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 140.35 | — |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |
Math Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 42.1 (#85), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1386 | 1151 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 77.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 31.8% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |
| MATH Level 5 | 90.9% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 5.9% | — |
Knowledge Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 46.4 (#81), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1395 | 1067 |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 79.9% | — |
| Confabulations | 10.8% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 67.5% | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |
Multilingual Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 48.1 (#145), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1352 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1387 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1357 | 1135 |
| LMArena German | 1349 | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1342 | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | 1335 | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | 1353 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1381 | 1111 |
Instruction Following Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 78.5 (#9), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1357 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |
| IFEval | 95.1% | — |
Long Context Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 41.0 (#147), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1372 | 1088 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
Writing & Preference Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 52.5 (#169), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1370 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1342 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1355 | 1068 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 73.5% | — |
| WildBench | 65.1% | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok-3 mini better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?
Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Is Grok-3 mini or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?
Grok-3 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Grok-3 mini and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok-3 mini has 35 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.