# Llama 3.2 3B vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

> Llama 3.2 3B and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct score almost the same on the Noometry Index (28.9 vs 29.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-2-3b-vs-phi-3-mini-128k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 15

## Summary

- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 6 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in instruction following, where Llama 3.2 3B leads 56.0 to 51.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Complete: 28.3% for Llama 3.2 3B and 40.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 28.9 | 29.7 |
| Rank | 321 | 305 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.33 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 23.4% | 29.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1098 | 1039 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 28.3% | 40.6% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 21.9% | — |
| BALROG | 10.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1095 | 1028 |

## Math

- Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1126 | 1089 |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1090 | 984 |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1019 | 1000 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1017 | 1016 |
| LMArena German | 1056 | 1006 |
| LMArena Russian | 949 | 1004 |
| LMArena French | — | 1039 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 856 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1059 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1089 | 1023 |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1100 | 996 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1094 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1105 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 595 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

Llama 3.2 3B and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct score almost the same on the Noometry Index (28.9 vs 29.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Llama 3.2 3B or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 28.8 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.2 3B and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

15 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.