Granite 4.2 3B vs Phi-4 Mini Reasoning
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Granite 4.2 3B | Phi-4-mini-reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | IBM | Microsoft |
| Family | Granite 4 2 | Phi 4 Mini Reasoning |
| Model | Granite 4.2 3B | Phi-4-mini-reasoning |
| Version | Granite 4.2 3B | Phi-4-mini-reasoning |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-08-25 | 2025-04-30 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 131K | 131K |
| Total parameters | 3.7B | 3.8B |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | apache-2.0 | mit |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Unknown |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard) | Unknown |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning |
14 comparable fields · 8 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Granite 4.2 3B Capabilities
Phi-4 Mini Reasoning Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs | GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peerstext | |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peerstext | |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext | |
Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs | Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Granite 4.2 3B vs Phi-4 Mini Reasoning FAQs
Is Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Granite 4.2 3B and Phi-4 Mini Reasoning, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
Only Granite 4.2 3B has a directly sourced input price: $0.030 per million tokens. Only Granite 4.2 3B has a directly sourced output price: $0.12 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Granite 4.2 3B is 131K and Phi-4 Mini Reasoning is 131K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Granite 4.2 3B is open weight; Phi-4 Mini Reasoning is open weight.
Can Granite 4.2 3B and Phi-4 Mini Reasoning understand images?+
Granite 4.2 3B is not documented with image input; Phi-4 Mini Reasoning is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Granite 4.2 3B is — and Phi-4 Mini Reasoning is —.
Do Granite 4.2 3B and Phi-4 Mini Reasoning support reasoning and tool use?+
Granite 4.2 3B: reasoning and tool calling. Phi-4 Mini Reasoning: reasoning. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
Granite 4.2 3B has 1 sourced provider route; Phi-4 Mini Reasoning has 0, so Granite 4.2 3B has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Granite 4.2 3B or Phi-4 Mini Reasoning?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.