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Gemma 3 1B vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct leads the LLM Stats Score -3.8 to -10.5.

Google · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score -3.8 to -10.5, ranking #346 overall.

In the 7 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct wins 7; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

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

Choose Gemma 3 1B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025

Choose Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

  • overall performance matters — it scores -3.8 and ranks #346 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 7 of 7 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Gemma 3 1B
Google
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-10.5
#367
-3.8
#346
Reasoning
-12.2
#361
-4.7
#342
Coding
-10.2
#264
-6.8
#261
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 7
7 of 7
Input price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Gemma 3 1B
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Math
-9.2#325
-1.5#304
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

18 reported for Gemma 3 1B · 31 for Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

7 shared

Gemma 3 1B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is better at 7 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GPQA, GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH, MBPP, MMLU-Pro).

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Sep 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2.8B diff

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct has 2.8B more parameters than Gemma 3 1B, making it 280.0% larger.

Google
Gemma 3 1B
1.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
3.8Bparameters
1.0B
Gemma 3 1B
3.8B
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Phi-3.5-mini-instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Phi-3.5-mini-instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Google
Gemma 3 1B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Wed Sep 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Gemma 3 1B is licensed under Gemma, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct uses MIT.

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

Gemma 3 1B

Gemma

Open weights

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemma 3 1B was released on 2025-03-12, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Gemma 3 1B is 7 months newer than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.

Gemma 3 1B

Mar 12, 2025

1.5 years ago

6mo newer
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

2.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Gemma 3 1B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemma 3 1B
✓ Preferred
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemma 3 1B vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.

Which is better, Gemma 3 1B or Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct leads the LLM Stats Score -3.8 to -10.5. Gemma 3 1B 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 Gemma 3 1B compare to Phi-3.5-mini-instruct in benchmarks?

Gemma 3 1B scores IFEval: 80.2%, GSM8k: 62.8%, Natural2Code: 56.0%, MATH: 48.0%, HumanEval: 41.5%. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct scores GSM8k: 86.2%, ARC-C: 84.6%, RULER: 84.1%, PIQA: 81.0%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Gemma 3 1B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemma 3 1B supports an unknown number of 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 Gemma 3 1B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-10.5 vs -3.8), licensing (Gemma vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemma 3 1B and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct?

Gemma 3 1B is developed by Google and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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