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Nova Micro vs Phi 4 Mini

Nova Micro leads the LLM Stats Score 1.9 to -4.6.

Amazon · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Nova Micro leads the overall LLM Stats Score 1.9 to -4.6, ranking #350 overall.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nova Micro wins 5; 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 Nova Micro

  • overall performance matters — it scores 1.9 and ranks #350 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 5 of 5 exact shared results

Choose Phi 4 Mini

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

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Nova Micro
Amazon
Phi 4 Mini
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
1.9
#350
-4.6
#384
Reasoning
1.3
#345
-4.6
#377
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
5 of 5
0 of 5
Input price
$0.03 / M
— / M
Output price
$0.14 / M
— / M
Context window
128,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Nova Micro
Phi 4 Mini
Math
9.1#274
2.2#314
Finance
1.4#199
1.1#205
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

17 reported for Nova Micro · 17 for Phi 4 Mini

5 shared

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

Nova Micro significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nova Micro specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Nova Micro specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Amazon
Nova Micro
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Oct 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Nova Micro 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 Micro

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Nova Micro 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 Micro.

Nova Micro

Nov 20, 2024

1.9 years ago

Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.7 years ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Nova Micro'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 Micro's cutoff date.

Nova Micro

—

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

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

Nova Micro
✓ Preferred
Phi 4 Mini
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Nova Micro vs Phi 4 Mini.

Which is better, Nova Micro or Phi 4 Mini?

Nova Micro leads the LLM Stats Score 1.9 to -4.6. Nova Micro is made by Amazon and Phi 4 Mini is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

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

Nova Micro scores GSM8k: 92.3%, ARC-C: 90.2%, Translation Set1→en COMET22: 88.7%, Translation en→Set1 COMET22: 88.5%, IFEval: 87.2%. 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 Micro and Phi 4 Mini?

Nova Micro supports 128K 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 Micro and Phi 4 Mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (1.9 vs -4.6), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Nova Micro and Phi 4 Mini?

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

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