Magistral Small 2506 vs Phi 4 Reasoning
Magistral Small 2506 and Phi 4 Reasoning are closely matched at 10.7 and 12.0 on the LLM Stats Score.
Mistral AI · Microsoft · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Magistral Small 2506 and Phi 4 Reasoning are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 10.7 and 12.0.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi 4 Reasoning wins 3; 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 Magistral Small 2506
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
Choose Phi 4 Reasoning
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 4 exact shared results
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for Magistral Small 2506 · 11 for Phi 4 Reasoning
Magistral Small 2506 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Phi 4 Reasoning is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, LiveCodeBench).
Phi 4 Reasoning shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Magistral Small 2506 has 10.0B more parameters than Phi 4 Reasoning, making it 71.4% larger.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Magistral Small 2506 is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Phi 4 Reasoning uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10, while Phi 4 Reasoning was released on 2025-04-30.
Magistral Small 2506 is 1 month newer than Phi 4 Reasoning.
Jun 10, 2025
1.3 years ago
1mo newerApr 30, 2025
1.5 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Magistral Small 2506 has a knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Phi 4 Reasoning has a cutoff of 2025-03-01.
Magistral Small 2506 has more recent training data (up to 2025-06-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Phi 4 Reasoning (2025-03-01).
Jun 2025
3 mo newerMar 2025
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Magistral Small 2506 and Phi 4 Reasoning side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Magistral Small 2506 vs Phi 4 Reasoning.