# Molmo 2 8b vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

> Molmo 2 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.1 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/molmo-2-8b-vs-phi-3-small-8k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 4

## Summary

- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Molmo 2 8b scores higher in 4 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Molmo 2 8b leads 49.4 to 31.1.

## Snapshot

| | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 39.1 | 29.3 |
| Rank | 174 | 314 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1101 |

## Reasoning

- Molmo 2 8b: 25.6 (#146)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1287 | 1100 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |

## Math

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1151 |

## Knowledge

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | — | 1067 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |

## Multimodal

- Molmo 2 8b: 30.2 (#112)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1081 | — |

## Multilingual

- Molmo 2 8b: 42.7 (#190)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1276 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1061 |
| LMArena French | — | 1135 |
| LMArena German | — | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1111 |

## Instruction Following

- Molmo 2 8b: 67.0 (#201)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1270 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |

## Long Context

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1088 |

## Writing & Preference

- Molmo 2 8b: 49.4 (#191)
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1288 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1068 |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |

## FAQ

### Is Molmo 2 8b better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

Molmo 2 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.1 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

### How many benchmarks do Molmo 2 8b and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Molmo 2 8b has 5 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.