Model Comparison

Gemma 3 4B vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instructWhich is better in 2026?

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Verdict: Gemma 3 4B vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct — which is better?

Gemma 3 4B (by Google) and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct (by Microsoft) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Gemma 3 4B outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GPQA, MBPP, MMLU-Pro). Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Choose Gemma 3 4B if…

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

Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

7 benchmarks

Gemma 3 4B outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GPQA, MBPP, MMLU-Pro).

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Mon Jul 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

56.0B diff

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has 56.0B more parameters than Gemma 3 4B, making it 1400.0% larger.

Google
Gemma 3 4B
4.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
60.0Bparameters
4.0B
Gemma 3 4B
60.0B
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Gemma 3 4B specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Gemma 3 4B specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

Google
Gemma 3 4B
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jul 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Gemma 3 4B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct does not.

Gemma 3 4B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemma 3 4B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Gemma 3 4B is licensed under Gemma, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct uses MIT.

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

Gemma 3 4B

Gemma

Open weights

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemma 3 4B was released on 2025-03-12, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Gemma 3 4B is 7 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Gemma 3 4B

Mar 12, 2025

1.4 years ago

6mo newer
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Gemma 3 4B has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-08-01, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Gemma 3 4B's training data extends to 2024-08-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date.

Gemma 3 4B

Aug 2024

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Google
Larger context window (131,072 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GSM8k score (89.2% vs 88.7%)
Higher HumanEval score (71.3% vs 70.7%)
Higher MATH score (75.6% vs 59.5%)
Microsoft
Higher BIG-Bench Hard score (79.1% vs 72.2%)
Higher GPQA score (36.8% vs 30.8%)
Higher MBPP score (80.8% vs 63.2%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (45.3% vs 43.6%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Gemma 3 4B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemma 3 4B
✓ Preferred
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Google
Gemma 3 4B
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Gemma 3 4B vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Which is better, Gemma 3 4B or Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance. Gemma 3 4B is made by Google and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Gemma 3 4B compare to Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct in benchmarks?

Gemma 3 4B scores IFEval: 90.2%, GSM8k: 89.2%, DocVQA: 75.8%, MATH: 75.6%, AI2D: 74.8%. Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct scores ARC-C: 91.0%, OpenBookQA: 89.6%, GSM8k: 88.7%, PIQA: 88.6%, RULER: 87.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Gemma 3 4B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Gemma 3 4B supports 131K tokens and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct supports an unknown number of 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 4B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Gemma vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemma 3 4B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Gemma 3 4B is developed by Google and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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