Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.5 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.5

Rank #232 Confirmed

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct Microsoft

32.4

Rank #246 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 4 categories and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct in 4 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in instruction following, where GPT-4.1 mini leads 73.9 to 57.8.
  • Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct specifications
GPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index33.532.4
Released2025-04-14—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output33K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.40—
Output $ / M tokens$1.60—
Results tracked4717

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Category by category

Coding Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.4 (#286), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 32.3 (#263)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13671130
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
SciCode40.4%—
WeirdML37.6%—
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%—
CadEval16%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.0 (#52), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—

Reasoning Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.9 (#335), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 20.8 (#214)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13491127
ARC-AGI-20%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
ARC-AGI-13.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles7%—
Mystery Game Puzzles7%—
DTBench68.8%—
LMCA21.1%—
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01—

Math Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 23.1 (#264), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.9 (#202)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Math13431173
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202544.7%—
Omni-MATH49.1%—
MATH Level 587.3%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)4.5%—

Knowledge GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#183), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 29.6 (#226)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert13381108
GPQA Diamond65.8%—
SimpleQA Verified12.7%—
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.2 (#77), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Vision1181—

Multilingual GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.9 (#161), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 30.8 (#258)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13181094
LMArena Chinese13291108
LMArena French13571109
LMArena German13491101
LMArena Japanese12911042
LMArena Korean1298954
LMArena Russian13241145
LMArena Spanish13191095

Instruction Following GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.9 (#113), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 57.8 (#263)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13321114
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#270), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 33.9 (#250)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13441120
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference GPT-4.1 mini leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.8 (#193), Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct: 34.3 (#267)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniPhi 3 Medium 4k Instruct
LMArena Text13411138
LMArena Creative Writing13001106
LMArena Multi-Turn13541088
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1147—
WildBench83.8%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct?

GPT-4.1 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.5 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct better for coding?

Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 32.3 versus 30.4 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Medium 4k Instruct has 17.

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