# Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct vs Sonar

> Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 7

## Summary

- They share 7 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Sonar in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Sonar leads 52.6 to 27.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is LiveBench Instruction Following: 39.1% for Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct and 76.2% for Sonar.
- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 38.5 |
| Rank | 328 | 187 |
| Context | — | 128K |
| Input $/M | — | $1 |
| Output $/M | — | $1 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323)
- Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | 15.5% | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1093 | — |
| HumanEval+ | 59.1% | — |
| MBPP+ | 54.2% | — |

## Reasoning

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328)
- Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | 26.8% | 46.3% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 34.7% | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | 22.4% | 46.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1072 | — |
| Adversarial NLI | 52.8% | — |
| BIG-Bench Hard | 71.7% | — |
| HellaSwag | 76.7% | — |
| WinoGrande | 70.8% | — |

## Math

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257)
- Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | 15.7% | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1111 | — |

## Knowledge

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1045 | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 84.9% | — |
| MMLU | 68.8% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 88% | — |
| TriviaQA | 64% | — |

## Multilingual

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1021 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1021 | — |
| LMArena French | 1076 | — |
| LMArena German | 1044 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 935 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 905 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1022 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1085 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303)
- Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 39.1% | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1053 | — |

## Long Context

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1044 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Language | 9.2% | 44.1% |
| LMArena Text | 1073 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1037 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1018 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better than Sonar?

Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

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

Sonar scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.7 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.

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

7 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.