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Granite 3.3 8B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 2.6 to -4.1.

IBM · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 2.6 to -4.1, ranking #302 overall.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi 4 Mini wins 3; 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 Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

  • overall performance matters — it scores 2.6 and ranks #302 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

Choose Phi 4 Mini

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 5 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
IBM
Phi 4 Mini
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
2.6
#302
-4.1
#335
Reasoning
3.0
#291
-4.2
#328
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 5
3 of 5
Input price
$0.50 / M
— / M
Output price
$0.50 / M
— / M
Context window
128,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Phi 4 Mini
Math
3.0#280
2.7#283
Finance
1.8#178
1.6#181
Legal
1.8#167
1.6#169
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for Granite 3.3 8B Instruct · 17 for Phi 4 Mini

5 shared

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (Arena Hard, TruthfulQA), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 3 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, GSM8k, MMLU).

Phi 4 Mini has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Fri Sep 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

4.2B diff

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct has 4.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 108.3% larger.

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
8.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
3.8Bparameters
8.0B
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini

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 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Sep 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini 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 4 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Phi 4 Mini 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 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct was released on 2025-04-16, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 2 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 16, 2025

1.4 years ago

2mo newer
Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct has a knowledge cutoff of 2024-04-01, while Phi 4 Mini has a cutoff of 2024-06-01.

Phi 4 Mini has more recent training data (up to 2024-06-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Granite 3.3 8B Instruct (2024-04-01).

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 2024

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

2 mo newer

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Granite 3.3 8B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Phi 4 Mini
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Granite 3.3 8B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Granite 3.3 8B Instruct or Phi 4 Mini?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 2.6 to -4.1. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is made by IBM and Phi 4 Mini is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Granite 3.3 8B Instruct compare to Phi 4 Mini 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 4 Mini scores GSM8k: 88.6%, ARC-C: 83.7%, BoolQ: 81.2%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%, PIQA: 77.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Granite 3.3 8B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct supports 128K tokens and Phi 4 Mini 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 4 Mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (2.6 vs -4.1), 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 4 Mini?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is developed by IBM and Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft.

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