# Llama 3.1-8B vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

> Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.1 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-1-8b-vs-phi-3-mini-128k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 4 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 4 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads 29.2 to 9.5.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 22.8 | 29.1 |
| Rank | 347 | 303 |
| Context | 128K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-8B: 19.9 (#335)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.3 (#307)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | 29.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | 1040 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | 40.6% |
| SciCode | 13.2% | — |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-8B: 22.3 (#123)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | — |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-8B: 14.5 (#316)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 18.7 (#254)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | 1028 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 5.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.48 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-8B: 9.5 (#311)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 29.2 (#220)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1179 | 1089 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#302)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.3 (#251)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | 984 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-8B: 34.2 (#244)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.4 (#280)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | 1000 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | 1016 |
| LMArena French | 1176 | 1038 |
| LMArena German | 1144 | 1006 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | 856 |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | 1004 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | 1058 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-8B: 59.1 (#253)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 52.1 (#289)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | 1023 |
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#233)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.3 (#284)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | 996 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-8B: 29.9 (#285)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.3 (#296)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 29.1 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Llama 3.1-8B or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 28.3 versus 19.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.