Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Terra vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Terra OpenAI

59.2

Rank #17 Confirmed

Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct Microsoft

29.3

Rank #314 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GPT-5.6 Terra leads 81.6 to 27.6.
  • Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.6 Terra and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct specifications
GPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index59.229.3
Released2026-07-092024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$12—
Results tracked5232

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 57.7 (#19), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Coding14841101
DeepSWE69.6%—
FrontierCode41.3%—
CursorBench41.3%—
LMArena WebDev1522—
SciCode55%—
WeirdML78.3%—
LiveBench Coding—20.3%
ALE-Bench1,951—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 40.1 (#25), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
APEX-Agents58.2%—
BALROG53.2%—
GDP.pdf24.7%—
Vending-Bench 27,343—

Reasoning GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 60.7 (#21), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14681100
ARC-AGI-283.9%—
SimpleBench48.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark51.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)78.4%—
ARC-AGI-196.5%—
CritPt30%—
Chess Puzzles54%—
LiveBench Reasoning—15.9%
Mystery Game Puzzles35%—
DTBench93.3%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—30.3%
LMCA55%—
Surface Evolver Bench83.8%—
Adversarial NLI—58.1%
BIG-Bench Hard—79.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index159.62—
HellaSwag—77%
LiveBench—24%
WinoGrande—81.5%

Math GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 81.6 (#12), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Math14661151
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)86%—
FrontierMath Tier 470.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.7%—
ProofBench74%—
LiveBench Math—17.6%

Knowledge GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 61.2 (#30), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Expert14921067
GPQA Diamond93.3%—
SimpleQA Verified43.2%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—90.7%
MMLU—75.7%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—58.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 47.3 (#11), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Vision1271—
Blueprint-Bench 230.8%—
Furniture Assembly54.2%—
LMArena Document1472—

Multilingual GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 54.4 (#44), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Non-English14391058
LMArena Chinese15131061
LMArena French14711135
LMArena German14601080
LMArena Japanese1457966
LMArena Korean1425894
LMArena Russian14501111
LMArena Spanish14481111

Instruction Following GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 76.4 (#40), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14541087
LiveBench Instruction Following—47.2%

Long Context GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 44.4 (#68), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14511088

Writing & Preference GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 70.2 (#23), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi 3 Small 8k Instruct
LMArena Text14471110
LMArena Creative Writing14101083
LMArena Multi-Turn14491068
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1855—
EQ-Bench 41234—
LiveBench Language—12.9%

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.6 Terra better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-5.6 Terra or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?

GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on coding benchmarks: 57.7 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.6 Terra and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.6 Terra has 52 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.

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