Model comparison

Grok-3 mini vs Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct

Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Grok-3 mini xAI

41.2

Rank #141 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct Microsoft

27.9

Rank #328 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok-3 mini scores higher in 7 categories and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in instruction following, where Grok-3 mini leads 78.5 to 47.7.
  • Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok-3 mini and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct specifications
Grok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
ProviderxAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index41.227.9
Released2025-04-092024-04-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window——
Max output——
Input $ / M tokens——
Output $ / M tokens——
Results tracked3535

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Category by category

Coding Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 40.8 (#131), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13791093
Aider Polyglot49.3%—
WeirdML42.6%—
LiveBench Coding—15.5%
HumanEval+—59.1%
MBPP+—54.2%

Reasoning Too close to call

Grok-3 mini: 13.6 (#334), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13751072
ARC-AGI-20.4%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark61.3%—
ARC-AGI-116.5%—
Chess Puzzles—0%
LiveBench Reasoning—26.8%
LiveBench Data Analysis—34.7%
Adversarial NLI—52.8%
BIG-Bench Hard—71.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index140.35—
HellaSwag—76.7%
LiveBench—22.4%
WinoGrande—70.8%

Math Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 42.1 (#85), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Math13861111
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202577.8%—
Omni-MATH31.8%—
LiveBench Math—15.7%
MATH Level 590.9%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)5.9%—

Knowledge Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 46.4 (#81), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert13951045
GPQA Diamond76.3%—
MMLU-Pro79.9%—
Confabulations10.8%—
GPQA (HELM)67.5%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—84.9%
MMLU—68.8%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—64%

Multilingual Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 48.1 (#145), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13521021
LMArena Chinese13871021
LMArena French13571076
LMArena German13491044
LMArena Japanese1342935
LMArena Korean1335905
LMArena Russian13531022
LMArena Spanish13811085

Instruction Following Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 78.5 (#9), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13571053
LiveBench Instruction Following—39.1%
IFEval95.1%—

Long Context Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 41.0 (#147), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13721044
Fiction.LiveBench66.7%—

Writing & Preference Grok-3 mini leads

Grok-3 mini: 52.5 (#169), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok-3 miniPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Text13701073
LMArena Creative Writing13421037
LMArena Multi-Turn13551018
Short-Story Creative Writing73.5%—
WildBench65.1%—
LiveBench Language—9.2%

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok-3 mini better than Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct?

Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is Grok-3 mini or Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better for coding?

Grok-3 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Grok-3 mini and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok-3 mini has 35 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35.

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