# Gemma 2 9B vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

> Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.3 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-phi-3-small-8k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 25

## Summary

- They share 25 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct leads 29.1 to 9.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is LiveBench Language: 25.5% for Gemma 2 9B and 12.9% for Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 29.3 |
| Rank | 341 | 314 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | 20.3% |
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1101 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | 15.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1100 |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | 30.3% |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | 24% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | — |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | 17.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1151 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1067 |
| MMLU | 72.1% | 75.7% |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | 1135 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | 1111 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | 47.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1087 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1088 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1068 |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | 12.9% |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.3 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?

Gemma 2 9B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 29.4 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

25 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.