# Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Phi-4 Mini

> Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-6-flash-vs-phi-4-mini
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 2

## Summary

- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 3 categories and Phi-4 Mini in 0 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 67.8 to 25.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 52.7% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 10.8% for Phi-4 Mini.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 33 | 283 |
| Context | 1.05M | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | $0.075 |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48)
- Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 52.7% | 10.8% |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22)
- Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 10.6% | 0% |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
| DTBench | 95.5% | — |
| LMCA | 44.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8)
- Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 23.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | — |
| LMArena French | 1504 | — |
| LMArena German | 1478 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | — |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27)
- Phi-4 Mini: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Phi-4 Mini?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Phi-4 Mini?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Phi-4 Mini better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Phi-4 Mini share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 Mini has 3.