Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct Microsoft

27.9

Rank #328 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 26.6.
  • Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct specifications
Claude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
ProviderAnthropicMicrosoft
Noometry Index61.927.9
Released2026-09-282024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$10—
Results tracked3235

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding15131093
FrontierCode52.1%—
CursorBench55.5%—
LMArena WebDev1774—
FrontierSWE61.9%—
SciCode61%—
LiveBench Coding—15.5%
ALE-Bench1,819—
HumanEval+—59.1%
MBPP+—54.2%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
APEX-Agents75.5%—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14951072
NYT Connections (extended)80.5%—
CritPt31.4%—
Chess Puzzles—0%
LiveBench Reasoning—26.8%
Mystery Game Puzzles65%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—34.7%
Adversarial NLI—52.8%
BIG-Bench Hard—71.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index165.03—
HellaSwag—76.7%
LiveBench—22.4%
WinoGrande—70.8%

Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Math15101111
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)88.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 480.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%—
ProofBench100%—
LiveBench Math—15.7%
FrontierMath Erdős2.9%—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert15401045
GPQA Diamond95.6%—
SimpleQA Verified46.5%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—84.9%
MMLU—68.8%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—64%

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1289—
Furniture Assembly75%—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14521021
LMArena Chinese15221021
LMArena Russian14511022
LMArena French—1076
LMArena German—1044
LMArena Japanese—935
LMArena Korean—905
LMArena Spanish—1085

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14951053
LiveBench Instruction Following—39.1%

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14981044

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Text14711073
LMArena Creative Writing14651037
LMArena Multi-Turn14741018
LiveBench Language—9.2%

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35.

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