vs
2:8
overall capability wins (1 ties across 11 scored). Phi-4-mini leads overall.
- Reasoning2:4
- Coding0:2
- Pricing0:3
- Specs0:2
Verdict
Phi-4-mini leads coding (widest gap: +1.8 on SciCode); Phi-4-mini offers larger context (131K vs 128K); Phi-4-mini allows ~4.0x more max output (16K vs 4K).
- Phi-4-mini leads coding (widest gap: +1.8 on SciCode)
- Phi-4-mini offers larger context (131K vs 128K)
- Phi-4-mini allows ~4.0x more max output (16K vs 4K)
- Phi-4-mini is ~1.7x cheaper on a blended token basis than Phi-3 Mini 3.8B
Cost for 1M in + 250K out
Illustrative chat workload at primary-provider list prices.
- Phi-3 Mini 3.8B
- $0.26
- Phi-4-mini
- $0.15
Phi-4-mini is about 1.7x cheaper on this workload.
Price per 1M tokens
Full comparison
Organization
Microsoft
Microsoft
Family
Phi
Phi
License
MIT
MIT
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Release
Apr 23, 2024
Feb 1, 2025
Knowledge cutoff
-
-
API / provider
Azure AI Foundry
Azure AI Foundry
Modalities
text → text
text → text
Specs
Context window
128K
131K
Max output
4K
16K
Parameters
3.8B
3.8B
Pricing
Input $/1M
$0.13
$0.07
Output $/1M
$0.52
$0.30
Blended $/1M (3∶1)
$0.23
$0.13
Speed
tok/s
140
140
TTFT (s)
0.18
0.18
Reasoning
MMLU-Pro
43.5
52.8
GPQA Diamond
31.9
33.1
Humanity's Last Exam
5.0
4.5
AIME 2025
0.3
6.7
MATH-500
45.7
69.6
Humanity's Last Exam (with tools)
—
—
AA-Omniscience Accuracy
—
9.5
AA-LCR v1.1
—
15.3
CritPt
—
—
MMMU-Pro
—
—
IFBench
23.9
21.1
Chartography
—
—
Chartography (With Tools)
—
—
Coding
SWE-bench Verified
—
—
SWE-bench Pro
—
—
SWE-bench Multilingual
—
—
LiveCodeBench
11.6
12.6
Terminal-Bench 2.1
—
0.4
Aider Polyglot
—
—
Terminal-Bench 3
—
—
BigCodeBench
29.6
—
SciCode
9.0
10.8
CursorBench
—
—
SWE-Rebench
—
—
NL2Repo-Bench
—
—
DeepSWE
—
—
WebDev Arena
—
—
Terminal-Bench 4.0
—
—
CursorBench 4.0
—
—
FrontierCode v1.1 (Main)
—
—
Arena
LMArena Elo
1,128
—
| Metric | Phi-3 Mini 3.8B | Phi-4-mini | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | |||
| Organization | Microsoft | Microsoft | — |
| Family | Phi | Phi | — |
| License | MIT | MIT | — |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes | — |
| Release | Apr 23, 2024 | Feb 1, 2025 | — |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - | — |
| API / provider | Azure AI Foundry | Azure AI Foundry | — |
| Modalities | text → text | text → text | — |
| Specs | |||
| Context window | 128K | 131K | B +3K |
| Max output | 4K | 16K | B +12K |
| Parameters | 3.8B | 3.8B | tie |
| Pricing | |||
| Input $/1M | $0.13 | $0.07 | B +$0.06 |
| Output $/1M | $0.52 | $0.30 | B +$0.22 |
| Blended $/1M (3∶1) | $0.23 | $0.13 | B +$0.10 |
| Speed | |||
| tok/s | 140 | 140 | tie |
| TTFT (s) | 0.18 | 0.18 | tie |
| Reasoning | |||
| MMLU-Pro | 43.5 | 52.8 | B +9.3 pts |
| GPQA Diamond | 31.9 | 33.1 | B +1.2 pts |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 5.0 | 4.5 | A +0.5 pts |
| AIME 2025 | 0.3 | 6.7 | B +6.4 pts |
| MATH-500 | 45.7 | 69.6 | B +23.9 pts |
| Humanity's Last Exam (with tools) | — | — | — |
| AA-Omniscience Accuracy | — | 9.5 | — |
| AA-LCR v1.1 | — | 15.3 | — |
| CritPt | — | — | — |
| MMMU-Pro | — | — | — |
| IFBench | 23.9 | 21.1 | A +2.8 pts |
| Chartography | — | — | — |
| Chartography (With Tools) | — | — | — |
| Coding | |||
| SWE-bench Verified | — | — | — |
| SWE-bench Pro | — | — | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | — | — | — |
| LiveCodeBench | 11.6 | 12.6 | B +1.0 pts |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | — | 0.4 | — |
| Aider Polyglot | — | — | — |
| Terminal-Bench 3 | — | — | — |
| BigCodeBench | 29.6 | — | — |
| SciCode | 9.0 | 10.8 | B +1.8 pts |
| CursorBench | — | — | — |
| SWE-Rebench | — | — | — |
| NL2Repo-Bench | — | — | — |
| DeepSWE | — | — | — |
| WebDev Arena | — | — | — |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | — | — | — |
| CursorBench 4.0 | — | — | — |
| FrontierCode v1.1 (Main) | — | — | — |
| Arena | |||
| LMArena Elo | 1,128 | — | — |
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B
- Context
- 128K / 4K out
- Parameters
- 3.8B
- Price
- $0.13 / $0.52
- Speed
- 140 tok/s · 0.18s TTFT
- Modalities
- text → text
- License
- MIT
Original Phi-3 Mini instruct — compact Azure / edge SLM that popularized Microsoft's open Phi line.
Phi-4-mini
- Context
- 131K / 16K out
- Parameters
- 3.8B
- Price
- $0.07 / $0.30
- Speed
- 140 tok/s · 0.18s TTFT
- Modalities
- text → text
- License
- MIT
Next-gen Microsoft SLM with grouped-query attention and built-in function calling — strong edge and mobile deployment choice.
Benchmark charts
Winner bars are emphasized. Per-benchmark deltas sit above each chart.