Phi-3 MinivsPhi-3 Medium
Microsoft vs Microsoft — Side-by-side model comparison
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | Phi-3 Mini | Phi-3 Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Arena Rank | — | — |
| Context Window | 128K | 128K |
| Input Pricing | Free (open)/1M tokens | Free (open)/1M tokens |
| Output Pricing | Free (open)/1M tokens | Free (open)/1M tokens |
| Parameters | 3.8B | 14B |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Best For | Edge deployment, mobile, on-device AI | Balanced performance, reasoning, coding |
| Release Date | Apr 23, 2024 | May 21, 2024 |
Phi-3 Mini
Phi-3 Mini is Microsoft's compact 3.8 billion parameter model that delivers surprisingly strong performance for its size, rivaling models many times larger on reasoning and coding benchmarks. It features a 128K context window despite its small size, making it ideal for on-device deployment in mobile phones, laptops, and edge devices where computational resources are severely constrained.
View Microsoft profile →Phi-3 Medium
Phi-3 Medium is Microsoft's 14 billion parameter model in the Phi-3 family, offering a step up in capability from Phi-3 Mini while remaining efficient enough for deployment on consumer hardware. It demonstrates that careful data curation and training methodology can produce models that compete with much larger alternatives, particularly on reasoning and STEM-related tasks.
View Microsoft profile →Key Differences: Phi-3 Mini vs Phi-3 Medium
Phi-3 Mini has 3.8B parameters vs Phi-3 Medium's 14B, which affects inference speed and capability.
When to use Phi-3 Mini
- +Your use case involves edge deployment, mobile, on-device ai
When to use Phi-3 Medium
- +Your use case involves balanced performance, reasoning, coding
The Verdict
Phi-3 Medium wins our head-to-head comparison with 1 out of 5 category wins. It's the stronger choice for balanced performance, reasoning, coding, though Phi-3 Mini holds an edge in edge deployment, mobile, on-device ai.
Last compared: March 2026 · Data sourced from public benchmarks and official pricing pages