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Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct are closely matched at -0.2 and -3.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 1.3x cheaper per token.

Google · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -0.2 and -3.3.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is roughly 1.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window

Choose Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 1.3x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2024
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
Google
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-0.2
#309
-3.3
#324
Reasoning
0.2
#299
-4.2
#322
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
3 of 3
0 of 3
Input price
$0.07 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$0.30 / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
1,048,576
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Math
2.8#276
-1.0#288
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B · 31 for Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

3 shared

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU-Pro), while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Aug 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs less

For input processing, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B ($0.07/1M tokens) is 1.4x cheaper than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B ($0.30/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Aug 30 2026 • llm-stats.com
Google
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
Input tokens$0.07
Output tokens$0.30
Best providerGoogle
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.10
Best providerAzure
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

4.2B diff

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B has 4.2B more parameters than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct, making it 110.5% larger.

Google
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
8.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
3.8Bparameters
8.0B
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
3.8B
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's 128,000 tokens. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Google
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sun Aug 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-mini-instruct does not.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B was released on 2024-03-15, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 5 months newer than Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

Mar 15, 2024

2.5 years ago

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

5mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-10-01, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B's training data extends to 2024-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's cutoff date.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

Oct 2024

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

—

Provider Availability

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is available from Google. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is available from Azure.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B

google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $0.07/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.30/1M

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

azure logo
Azure
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
✓ Preferred
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.

Which is better, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B or Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at -0.2 and -3.3. Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is made by Google and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B compare to Phi-3.5-mini-instruct in benchmarks?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B scores XSTest: 92.6%, FLEURS: 86.4%, Natural2Code: 75.5%, WMT23: 72.6%, Video-MME: 66.2%. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct scores GSM8k: 86.2%, ARC-C: 84.6%, RULER: 84.1%, PIQA: 81.0%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%.

Is Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B cheaper than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is 1.4x cheaper for input tokens. Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B costs $0.07/M input and $0.30/M output via google. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via azure.

What are the context window sizes for Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B supports 1.0M tokens and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-0.2 vs -3.3), context window (1.0M vs 128K), input pricing ($0.07 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is developed by Google and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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