Model Comparison

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instructWhich is better in 2026?

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Verdict: Granite 3.3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct — which is better?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct (by IBM) 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.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (Arena Hard, HumanEval), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GSM8k, MMLU, TruthfulQA). Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Choose Granite 3.3 8B Instruct if…

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

Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 6 shared benchmarks
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

6 benchmarks

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (Arena Hard, HumanEval), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GSM8k, MMLU, TruthfulQA).

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

52.0B diff

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has 52.0B more parameters than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct, making it 650.0% larger.

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
8.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
60.0Bparameters
8.0B
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
60.0B
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Granite 3.3 8B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Granite 3.3 8B Instruct specifies output context (8,192 tokens).

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct does not.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct uses MIT.

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

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct was released on 2025-04-16, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 8 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 16, 2025

1.1 years ago

7mo newer
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

1.8 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-04-01, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Granite 3.3 8B Instruct's training data extends to 2024-04-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 2024

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

IBM
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher Arena Hard score (57.6% vs 37.9%)
Higher HumanEval score (89.7% vs 70.7%)
Microsoft
Higher BIG-Bench Hard score (79.1% vs 69.1%)
Higher GSM8k score (88.7% vs 80.9%)
Higher MMLU score (78.9% vs 65.5%)
Higher TruthfulQA score (77.5% vs 66.9%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Granite 3.3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Which is better, Granite 3.3 8B Instruct or Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is made by IBM 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 Granite 3.3 8B Instruct compare to Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct in benchmarks?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, GSM8k: 80.9%. 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 Granite 3.3 8B Instruct and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct supports 128K 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 Granite 3.3 8B Instruct and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Granite 3.3 8B Instruct and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is developed by IBM and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

Related comparisons