Model Comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instructWhich is better in 2026?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Grok 4.5 vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct — which is better?

Grok 4.5 (by xAI) 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.

Grok 4.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Grok 4.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Grok 4.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.5 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.5
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct does not.

Grok 4.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct uses MIT.

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

Grok 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.5 was released on 2026-07-16, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Grok 4.5 is 23 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Grok 4.5

Jul 16, 2026

2 days ago

1.9yr newer
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.5's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date.

Grok 4.5

Feb 2026

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (500,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (93.0% vs 36.8%)
Microsoft
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.5 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.5
✓ Preferred
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok 4.5
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.5 vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Which is better, Grok 4.5 or Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4.5 is made by xAI 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 Grok 4.5 compare to Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct in benchmarks?

Grok 4.5 scores GPQA: 93.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 83.3%, Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v1.1: 76.0%, SWE-Bench Pro: 64.7%, AA-Omniscience Index: 63.0%. 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 Grok 4.5 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.5 supports 500K 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 Grok 4.5 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

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

Who makes Grok 4.5 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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