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DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched at 1.5 and 3.1 on the LLM Stats Score.

DeepSeek · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 1.5 and 3.1.

In the 9 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi-4-multimodal-instruct wins 6; 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 DeepSeek VL2 Small

  • you are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem

Choose Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 6 of 9 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
DeepSeek
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
1.5
#308
3.1
#299
Reasoning
-3.5
#325
0.2
#304
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
3 of 9
6 of 9
Input price
— / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Vision
1.1#173
2.2#165
Multimodal
3.8#137
4.3#136
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for DeepSeek VL2 Small · 15 for Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

9 shared

DeepSeek VL2 Small outperforms in 3 benchmarks (ChartQA, InfoVQA, TextVQA), while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is better at 6 benchmarks (AI2D, DocVQA, MathVista, MMBench, MMMU, OCRBench).

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Thu Sep 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

10.4B diff

DeepSeek VL2 Small has 10.4B more parameters than Phi-4-multimodal-instruct, making it 185.7% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2 Small
16.0Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
5.6Bparameters
16.0B
DeepSeek VL2 Small
5.6B
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Thu Sep 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek VL2 Small is licensed under deepseek, while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

deepseek

Open weights

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek VL2 Small was released on 2024-12-13, while Phi-4-multimodal-instruct was released on 2025-02-01.

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is 2 months newer than DeepSeek VL2 Small.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Dec 13, 2024

1.7 years ago

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Feb 1, 2025

1.6 years ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi-4-multimodal-instruct's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

—

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
✓ Preferred
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct.

Which is better, DeepSeek VL2 Small or Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 1.5 and 3.1. DeepSeek VL2 Small is made by DeepSeek and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek VL2 Small compare to Phi-4-multimodal-instruct in benchmarks?

DeepSeek VL2 Small scores DocVQA: 92.3%, ChartQA: 84.5%, OCRBench: 83.4%, TextVQA: 83.4%, MMBench: 80.3%. Phi-4-multimodal-instruct scores ScienceQA Visual: 97.5%, DocVQA: 93.2%, MMBench: 86.7%, POPE: 85.6%, OCRBench: 84.4%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek VL2 Small supports an unknown number of tokens and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (1.5 vs 3.1), licensing (deepseek vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek VL2 Small and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek VL2 Small is developed by DeepSeek and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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