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Grok 4.6 vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

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

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Microsoft
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
— / M
Context window
500,000
—
Released
Aug 2026
Aug 2024
License
Proprietary
MIT

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.6 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct does not.

Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 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 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Grok 4.6 is 24 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

2.0yr newer
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 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 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct's cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct (Microsoft) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok 4.6 compare to Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. 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 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.6 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 4.6 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 4.6 and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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