Model Comparison

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct vs Phi 4 MiniWhich is better in 2026?

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.2 90B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini — which is better?

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct (by Meta) and Phi 4 Mini (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.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MGSM, MMLU), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks. Llama 3.2 90B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.2 90B Instruct if…

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

Choose Phi 4 Mini if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MGSM, MMLU), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Aug 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

86.2B diff

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct has 86.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 2243.8% larger.

Meta
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
90.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
3.8Bparameters
90.0B
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.2 90B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.2 90B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meta
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Aug 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi 4 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.2, while Phi 4 Mini uses MIT.

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

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct

Llama 3.2

Open weights

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct was released on 2024-09-25, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.

Phi 4 Mini is 4 months newer than Llama 3.2 90B Instruct.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct

Sep 25, 2024

1.8 years ago

Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.5 years ago

4mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Llama 3.2 90B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi 4 Mini's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Llama 3.2 90B Instruct's cutoff date.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct

—

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Meta
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (46.7% vs 25.2%)
Higher MATH score (68.0% vs 64.0%)
Higher MGSM score (86.9% vs 63.9%)
Higher MMLU score (86.0% vs 67.3%)
Microsoft

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Phi 4 Mini
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meta
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.2 90B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Llama 3.2 90B Instruct or Phi 4 Mini?

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.2 90B Instruct is made by Meta and Phi 4 Mini is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Llama 3.2 90B Instruct compare to Phi 4 Mini in benchmarks?

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct scores AI2D: 92.3%, DocVQA: 90.1%, MGSM: 86.9%, MMLU: 86.0%, ChartQA: 85.5%. 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 Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Llama 3.2 90B 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 Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Llama 3.2 vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Llama 3.2 90B Instruct is developed by Meta and Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft.

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