Claude 3 Opus vs Phi 4 Reasoning
Phi 4 Reasoning significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Anthropic · Microsoft · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Phi 4 Reasoning is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro). Phi 4 Reasoning significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3 Opus
- you want predictable pricing at $15.00/M input and $75.00/M output
Choose Phi 4 Reasoning
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Phi 4 Reasoning is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).
Phi 4 Reasoning significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Claude 3 Opus specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3 Opus specifies output context (200,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Claude 3 Opus supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Reasoning does not.
Claude 3 Opus can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude 3 Opus
Phi 4 Reasoning
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3 Opus is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi 4 Reasoning uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3 Opus was released on 2024-02-29, while Phi 4 Reasoning was released on 2025-04-30.
Phi 4 Reasoning is 14 months newer than Claude 3 Opus.
Feb 29, 2024
2.5 years ago
Apr 30, 2025
1.3 years ago
1.2yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Reasoning has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-03-01, while Claude 3 Opus's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4 Reasoning's training data extends to 2025-03-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3 Opus's cutoff date.
—
Mar 2025
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Opus and Phi 4 Reasoning side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Opus vs Phi 4 Reasoning.