Model Comparison

Nova Lite vs Phi 4 MiniWhich is better in 2026?

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Nova Lite vs Phi 4 Mini — which is better?

Nova Lite (by Amazon) and Phi 4 Mini (by Microsoft) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Nova Lite outperforms in 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, GPQA, GSM8k, MATH, MMLU), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks. Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Nova Lite if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 5 shared benchmarks

Choose Phi 4 Mini if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

Nova Lite outperforms in 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, GPQA, GSM8k, MATH, MMLU), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks.

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nova Lite specifies input context (300,000 tokens). Only Nova Lite specifies output context (2,048 tokens).

Amazon
Nova Lite
Input300,000 tokens
Output2,048 tokens
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jun 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Nova Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.

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

Nova Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi 4 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Nova Lite 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.

Nova Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.

Phi 4 Mini is 2 months newer than Nova Lite.

Nova Lite

Nov 20, 2024

1.5 years ago

Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.3 years ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Nova Lite's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi 4 Mini's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nova Lite's cutoff date.

Nova Lite

—

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Amazon
Larger context window (300,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher ARC-C score (92.4% vs 83.7%)
Higher GPQA score (42.0% vs 25.2%)
Higher GSM8k score (94.5% vs 88.6%)
Higher MATH score (73.3% vs 64.0%)
Higher MMLU score (80.5% vs 67.3%)
Microsoft
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Amazon
Nova Lite
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini

FAQ

Common questions about Nova Lite vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Nova Lite or Phi 4 Mini?

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Nova Lite is made by Amazon and Phi 4 Mini is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Nova Lite compare to Phi 4 Mini in benchmarks?

Nova Lite scores GSM8k: 94.5%, ARC-C: 92.4%, DocVQA: 92.4%, IFEval: 89.7%, Translation en→Set1 COMET22: 88.8%. 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 Nova Lite and Phi 4 Mini?

Nova Lite supports 300K 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 Nova Lite 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 Nova Lite and Phi 4 Mini?

Nova Lite is developed by Amazon and Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft.

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