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Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 3.9 to -4.4.

Mistral AI · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 3.9 to -4.4, ranking #326 overall.

In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct wins 4; 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

  • overall performance matters — it scores 3.9 and ranks #326 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025

Choose Phi 4 Mini

  • you are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Core performance indexes
3.9
#326
-4.4
#371
3.9
#320
-4.5
#364
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
4 of 4
0 of 4
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
—
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Phi 4 Mini
7.9#273
2.3#305
7.3#167
1.1#200
7.3#149
1.1#185
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

9 reported for Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct · 17 for Phi 4 Mini

4 shared

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

20.2B diff

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct has 20.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 525.0% larger.

Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
24.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
3.8Bparameters
24.0B
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi 4 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is 1 month newer than Phi 4 Mini.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Mar 17, 2025

1.6 years ago

1mo newer
Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.7 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct's cutoff date.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

—

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Phi 4 Mini
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct or Phi 4 Mini?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 3.9 to -4.4. Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct compare to Phi 4 Mini in benchmarks?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct scores HumanEval: 88.4%, MMLU: 80.6%, TriviaQA: 80.5%, MBPP: 74.7%, MATH: 69.3%. Phi 4 Mini scores GSM8k: 88.6%, ARC-C: 83.7%, BoolQ: 81.2%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%, PIQA: 77.6%.

What are the main differences between Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (3.9 vs -4.4), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct and Phi 4 Mini?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI and Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft.