The 1H-pyrazolo-[3,4-b]quinoline (PQ) core of the title mol-ecule, C(23)H(14)F(3)N(3), is aromatic and essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.015 Å) and the two phenyl substituents at positions 1 and 3 are twisted relative to this fragment by 29.74 (7) and 25.63 (7)°, respectively. In the crystal, mol-ecules are arranged along the b axis into stacks via π-π inter-actions, with an inter-planar distance of the PQ core of 3.489 (4) Å.