# Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct vs Qwen2-72B

> Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and Qwen2-72B score almost the same on the Noometry Index (29.7 vs 30.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-3-mini-128k-instruct-vs-qwen2-72b
- 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 Qwen2-72B in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen2-72B leads 40.8 to 27.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Complete: 40.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and 54% for Qwen2-72B.

## Snapshot

| | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 29.7 | 30.0 |
| Rank | 305 | 300 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)
- Qwen2-72B: 29.1 (#310)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 29.6% | 38.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1039 | 1196 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | 54% |
| WeirdML | — | 11.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: —
- Qwen2-72B: 17.0 (#146)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| TheAgentCompany | — | 1.1% |
| METR Time Horizons | — | 29.9% |

## Reasoning

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)
- Qwen2-72B: 23.2 (#181)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1028 | 1191 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 125.28 |

## Math

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)
- Qwen2-72B: 30.2 (#236)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1089 | 1235 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 39.1% |

## Knowledge

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)
- Qwen2-72B: 21.2 (#275)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 984 | 1171 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 40.8% |
| MMLU | — | 82.4% |

## Multilingual

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)
- Qwen2-72B: 35.9 (#244)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1000 | 1176 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1016 | 1240 |
| LMArena French | 1039 | 1170 |
| LMArena German | 1006 | 1151 |
| LMArena Japanese | 899 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 856 | 1083 |
| LMArena Russian | 1004 | 1169 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1059 | 1169 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)
- Qwen2-72B: 61.7 (#241)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1023 | 1181 |

## Long Context

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)
- Qwen2-72B: 36.1 (#235)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 996 | 1192 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)
- Qwen2-72B: 40.8 (#241)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1050 | 1203 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1024 | 1181 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 989 | 1196 |

## FAQ

### Is Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better than Qwen2-72B?

Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and Qwen2-72B score almost the same on the Noometry Index (29.7 vs 30.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct or Qwen2-72B better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (28.8 vs 29.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### How many benchmarks do Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct and Qwen2-72B share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2-72B has 26.