# Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct vs Phi-4

> Phi-4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.9 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-3-mini-128k-instruct-vs-phi-4
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct scores higher in 2 categories and Phi-4 in 6 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Phi-4 leads 40.7 to 27.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 29.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and 45.5% for Phi-4.

## Snapshot

| | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 29.1 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 303 | 269 |
| Context | — | 128K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.07 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.14 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.3 (#307)
- Phi-4: 33.8 (#237)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 29.6% | 45.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1040 | 1231 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | 55.4% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 30.7% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —
- Phi-4: 22.6 (#120)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 28.8% |
| BALROG | — | 11.6% |

## Reasoning

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 18.7 (#254)
- Phi-4: 17.0 (#287)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1028 | 1220 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 47.8% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 45.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 130.43 |
| LiveBench | — | 41.6% |

## Math

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 29.2 (#220)
- Phi-4: 19.6 (#279)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1089 | 1246 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 13.8% |
| LiveBench Math | — | 42% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 64.9% |

## Knowledge

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.3 (#251)
- Phi-4: 32.5 (#204)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 984 | 1203 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |
| Confabulations | — | 29.4% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 3.7% |
| MMLU | — | 84.8% |

## Multilingual

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.4 (#280)
- Phi-4: 37.4 (#232)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1000 | 1197 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1016 | 1211 |
| LMArena French | 1038 | 1223 |
| LMArena German | 1006 | 1222 |
| LMArena Japanese | 899 | 1158 |
| LMArena Korean | 856 | 1151 |
| LMArena Russian | 1004 | 1209 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1058 | 1234 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 52.1 (#289)
- Phi-4: 60.6 (#246)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1023 | 1201 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 58.4% |

## Long Context

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.3 (#284)
- Phi-4: 36.9 (#221)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 996 | 1217 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.3 (#296)
- Phi-4: 40.7 (#239)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1050 | 1217 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1024 | 1182 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 989 | 1206 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 62.6% |
| LiveBench Language | — | 25.6% |

## FAQ

### Is Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better than Phi-4?

Phi-4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.9 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct or Phi-4 better for coding?

Phi-4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 33.8 versus 28.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and Phi-4 share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 has 37.