# Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-3-small-8k-instruct-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 27.6.
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 29.3 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 314 | 22 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $2 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1101 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |
| LiveBench Coding | 20.3% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1100 | 1496 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 40% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.9% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 30.3% | — |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
| Adversarial NLI | 58.1% | — |
| BIG-Bench Hard | 79.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 156.41 |
| HellaSwag | 77% | — |
| LiveBench | 24% | — |
| WinoGrande | 81.5% | — |

## Math

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1151 | 1499 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 100% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| LiveBench Math | 17.6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1067 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 90.7% | — |
| MMLU | 75.7% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 88% | — |
| TriviaQA | 58.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1058 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1061 | 1538 |
| LMArena French | 1135 | 1503 |
| LMArena German | 1080 | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | 966 | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | 894 | 1461 |
| LMArena Russian | 1111 | 1481 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1111 | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1087 | 1479 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 47.2% | — |

## Long Context

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1088 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1083 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1068 | 1489 |
| LiveBench Language | 12.9% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.