# MiniMax-M3 vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

> MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m3-vs-phi-3-small-8k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M3 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M3 leads 62.1 to 31.1.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 43.8 | 29.3 |
| Rank | 85 | 314 |
| Context | 1M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | — |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1469 | 1101 |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | — |
| SciCode | 47.1% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
| ALE-Bench | 640.02 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 37.7% | — |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 2,158 | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1447 | 1100 |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 65.1% | — |
| CritPt | 3.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 14% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 8% | — |
| DTBench | 78.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| LMCA | 33.7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55% | — |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.95 | — |
| ForecastBench | 61.4 | — |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |

## Math

- MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1429 | 1151 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 18% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1461 | 1067 |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |

## Multimodal

- MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1253 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1420 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1463 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1447 | 1135 |
| LMArena German | 1426 | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1381 | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | 1372 | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | 1428 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1432 | 1111 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1433 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | 1088 |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M3 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1433 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1442 | 1068 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1150 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M3 better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Is MiniMax-M3 or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?

MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M3 and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.