# GPT-4.1 mini vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

> GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-4-1-mini-vs-phi-3-mini-128k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in instruction following, where GPT-4.1 mini leads 73.7 to 51.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 48.9% for GPT-4.1 mini and 29.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct.
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 33.6 | 29.7 |
| Rank | 240 | 305 |
| Context | 1.05M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | — |
| Output $/M | $1.60 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 48.9% | 29.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1367 | 1039 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 23.9% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 32.4% | — |
| SciCode | 40.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 37.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 40.6% |
| CadEval | 16% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 50.5% | — |

## Reasoning

- GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1349 | 1028 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 48.6% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 3.5% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 7% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | — |
| DTBench | 68.8% | — |
| LMCA | 21.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 135.01 | — |

## Math

- GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1343 | 1089 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 6.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 44.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 49.1% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 87.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 4.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1338 | 984 |
| GPQA Diamond | 65.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 12.7% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 78.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 61.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1181 | — |

## Multilingual

- GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1000 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1329 | 1016 |
| LMArena French | 1358 | 1039 |
| LMArena German | 1351 | 1006 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1290 | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 856 |
| LMArena Russian | 1324 | 1004 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1319 | 1059 |

## Instruction Following

- GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1333 | 1023 |
| IFEval | 90.4% | — |

## Long Context

- GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1344 | 996 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 44.4% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1300 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1354 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1147 | — |
| WildBench | 83.8% | — |

## FAQ

### Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.6 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Is GPT-4.1 mini or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 30.6 versus 28.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.