# Llama 3.2 3B vs Phi-4

> Phi-4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.2 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-2-3b-vs-phi-4
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 2 categories and Phi-4 in 7 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Phi-4 leads 40.5 to 24.7.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Complete: 28.3% for Llama 3.2 3B and 55.4% for Phi-4.
- Phi-4 is cheaper at $0.07 / $0.14 per million input/output tokens, against $0.05 / $0.33 for Llama 3.2 3B.
- Llama 3.2 3B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 28.9 | 31.2 |
| Rank | 321 | 279 |
| Context | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| Output $/M | $0.33 | $0.14 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319)
- Phi-4: 34.4 (#239)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 23.4% | 45.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1098 | 1231 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 28.3% | 55.4% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 30.7% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143)
- Phi-4: 22.8 (#128)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 21.9% | 28.8% |
| BALROG | 10.1% | 11.6% |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228)
- Phi-4: 17.7 (#291)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1095 | 1220 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 47.8% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 45.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 130.42 |
| LiveBench | — | 41.6% |

## Math

- Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214)
- Phi-4: 20.8 (#285)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1126 | 1246 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 13.8% |
| LiveBench Math | — | 42% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 64.9% |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235)
- Phi-4: 32.6 (#209)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1090 | 1203 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |
| Confabulations | — | 29.4% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 3.7% |
| MMLU | — | 84.8% |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281)
- Phi-4: 37.2 (#237)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1019 | 1197 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1017 | 1212 |
| LMArena German | 1056 | 1222 |
| LMArena Russian | 949 | 1209 |
| LMArena French | — | 1224 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1158 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1151 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1234 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275)
- Phi-4: 60.4 (#251)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1089 | 1201 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 58.4% |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261)
- Phi-4: 36.9 (#226)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1100 | 1217 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307)
- Phi-4: 40.5 (#244)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1217 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1094 | 1182 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1105 | 1206 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 62.6% |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 595 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 25.6% |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Phi-4?

Phi-4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.2 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 3B or Phi-4?

Phi-4 is cheaper. It lists at $0.07 per million input tokens and $0.14 per million output tokens; Llama 3.2 3B lists at $0.05 and $0.33.

### Is Llama 3.2 3B or Phi-4 better for coding?

Phi-4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.4 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Llama 3.2 3B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.2 3B and Phi-4 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 has 37.