Model comparison

Grok 4.6 vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.9

Rank #21 Confirmed

Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct Microsoft

29.3

Rank #314 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.6 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.6 leads 61.4 to 14.8.
  • Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.6 and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct specifications
Grok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
ProviderxAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index56.929.3
Released2026-08-122024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window500K—
Max output500K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$6—
Results tracked4932

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 58.5 (#16), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Coding14651101
DeepSWE67.5%—
FrontierCode48%—
CursorBench41.4%—
LMArena WebDev1617—
FrontierSWE25.3%—
SciCode56.5%—
WeirdML67.3%—
LiveBench Coding—20.3%
ALE-Bench1,508—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#27), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
APEX-Agents65.3%—
GDP.pdf17.2%—
Vending-Bench 29,047—

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 61.4 (#20), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14471100
ARC-AGI-267.1%—
SimpleBench75.9%—
NYT Connections (extended)80%—
ARC-AGI-187.5%—
CritPt19.7%—
Chess Puzzles40%—
EBR-Bench30.5%—
LiveBench Reasoning—15.9%
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.3%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—30.3%
LMCA48.5%—
Adversarial NLI—58.1%
BIG-Bench Hard—79.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index156.44—
HellaSwag—77%
LiveBench—24%
WinoGrande—81.5%

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 67.0 (#24), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Math14231151
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)66%—
FrontierMath Tier 431.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.2%—
ProofBench51%—
LiveBench Math—17.6%

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#20), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Expert14671067
GPQA Diamond94%—
SimpleQA Verified49.3%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—90.7%
MMLU—75.7%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—58.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Grok 4.6: 43.6 (#23), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Vision1263—
Blueprint-Bench 233.2%—
Furniture Assembly40%—
LMArena Document1452—

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 53.0 (#74), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14201058
LMArena Chinese14801061
LMArena French14611135
LMArena German14311080
LMArena Japanese1376966
LMArena Korean1397894
LMArena Russian14221111
LMArena Spanish14041111

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 75.4 (#63), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14311087
LiveBench Instruction Following—47.2%

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 44.5 (#66), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14541088

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 62.3 (#80), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Text14281110
LMArena Creative Writing14281083
LMArena Multi-Turn14251068
LiveBench Language—12.9%

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.6 better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Is Grok 4.6 or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.5 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.6 and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.6 has 49 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.

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