Model Comparison
Gemma 3n E2B vs Phi 4 MiniWhich is better in 2026?
Phi 4 Mini shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Verdict: Gemma 3n E2B vs Phi 4 Mini — which is better?
Gemma 3n E2B (by Google) and Phi 4 Mini (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 3n E2B outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HellaSwag, PIQA), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, BIG-Bench Hard, BoolQ, Social IQa, Winogrande). Phi 4 Mini shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Choose Gemma 3n E2B if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
Choose Phi 4 Mini if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 7 shared benchmarks
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Gemma 3n E2B outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HellaSwag, PIQA), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, BIG-Bench Hard, BoolQ, Social IQa, Winogrande).
Phi 4 Mini shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Gemma 3n E2B has 4.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 108.3% larger.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Gemma 3n E2B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.
Gemma 3n E2B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Gemma 3n E2B
Phi 4 Mini
License
Usage and distribution terms
Gemma 3n E2B is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi 4 Mini uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Gemma 3n E2B was released on 2025-06-26, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.
Gemma 3n E2B is 5 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.
Jun 26, 2025
1.1 years ago
4mo newerFeb 1, 2025
1.5 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Both models have the same knowledge cutoff date of 2024-06-01.
They should have similar awareness of historical events and information up to this date.
Jun 2024
Jun 2024
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Gemma 3n E2B
View detailsPhi 4 Mini
View detailsMicrosoft
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Gemma 3n E2B and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Gemma 3n E2B vs Phi 4 Mini.