Model comparison
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
Microsoft
StepFunSummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 5 Preview leads 62.8 to 31.1.
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 29.3 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2024-04-23 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 1.02M |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1101 | 1480 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LiveBench Coding | 20.3% | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1100 | 1465 |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 30.3% | — |
| Adversarial NLI | 58.1% | — |
| BIG-Bench Hard | 79.1% | — |
| HellaSwag | 77% | — |
| LiveBench | 24% | — |
| WinoGrande | 81.5% | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1151 | 1470 |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| LiveBench Math | 17.6% | — |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1067 | 1470 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 90.7% | — |
| MMLU | 75.7% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 88% | — |
| TriviaQA | 58.1% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1058 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1061 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1111 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1111 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1135 | — |
| LMArena German | 1080 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 966 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 894 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1087 | 1444 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 47.2% | — |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1088 | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1083 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1068 | 1447 |
| LiveBench Language | 12.9% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Is Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct and Step 5 Preview share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.