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Grok 4.6 vs Phi 4 Mini

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Phi 4 Mini

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Phi 4 Mini
Microsoft
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
— / M
Context window
500,000
—
Released
Aug 2026
Feb 2025
License
Proprietary
MIT

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Minidon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.6 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.

Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi 4 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi 4 Mini uses MIT.

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

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.

Grok 4.6 is 19 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.5yr newer
Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Phi 4 Mini has a cutoff of 2024-06-01.

Grok 4.6 has more recent training data (up to 2026-02-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Phi 4 Mini (2024-06-01).

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

1.7 yr newer
Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Phi 4 Mini
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Phi 4 Mini?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Phi 4 Mini (Microsoft) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok 4.6 compare to Phi 4 Mini in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. Phi 4 Mini scores GSM8k: 88.6%, ARC-C: 83.7%, BoolQ: 81.2%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%, PIQA: 77.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and Phi 4 Mini supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.6 and Phi 4 Mini?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft.

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