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LFM2.5-VL-3B vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Liquid AI · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LFM2.5-VL-3B outperforms in 3 benchmarks (BLINK, POPE, TextVQA), while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (ChartQA, DocVQA, MMMU-Pro, OCRBench). Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

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

Choose LFM2.5-VL-3B

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

Choose Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LFM2.5-VL-3B
Liquid AI
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Microsoft
Benchmark wins
3 of 7
4 of 7
Input price
— / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
—
128,000
Released
Aug 2026
Feb 2025
License
LFM Open License v1.0
MIT

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

7 benchmarks

LFM2.5-VL-3B outperforms in 3 benchmarks (BLINK, POPE, TextVQA), while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (ChartQA, DocVQA, MMMU-Pro, OCRBench).

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2.5B diff

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has 2.5B more parameters than LFM2.5-VL-3B, making it 79.3% larger.

Liquid AI
LFM2.5-VL-3B
3.1Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
5.6Bparameters
3.1B
LFM2.5-VL-3B
5.6B
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Liquid AI
LFM2.5-VL-3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both LFM2.5-VL-3B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

LFM2.5-VL-3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LFM2.5-VL-3B is licensed under LFM Open License v1.0, while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct uses MIT.

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

LFM2.5-VL-3B

LFM Open License v1.0

Open weights

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LFM2.5-VL-3B was released on 2026-08-12, while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct was released on 2025-02-01.

LFM2.5-VL-3B is 19 months newer than Phi-4-multimodal-instruct.

LFM2.5-VL-3B

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.5yr newer
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Feb 1, 2025

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while LFM2.5-VL-3B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi-4-multimodal-instruct's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without LFM2.5-VL-3B's cutoff date.

LFM2.5-VL-3B

—

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LFM2.5-VL-3B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LFM2.5-VL-3B
✓ Preferred
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LFM2.5-VL-3B vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct.

Which is better, LFM2.5-VL-3B or Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance. LFM2.5-VL-3B is made by Liquid AI and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does LFM2.5-VL-3B compare to Phi-4-multimodal-instruct in benchmarks?

LFM2.5-VL-3B scores DocVQA: 91.1%, POPE: 88.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 87.9%, TextVQA: 84.3%, OCRBench: 84.2%. Phi-4-multimodal-instruct scores ScienceQA Visual: 97.5%, DocVQA: 93.2%, MMBench: 86.7%, POPE: 85.6%, OCRBench: 84.4%.

What are the context window sizes for LFM2.5-VL-3B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

LFM2.5-VL-3B supports an unknown number of tokens and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between LFM2.5-VL-3B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

Key differences include licensing (LFM Open License v1.0 vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LFM2.5-VL-3B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

LFM2.5-VL-3B is developed by Liquid AI and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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