Model Comparison

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed May 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

200.0M diff

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking has 0.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini Reasoning, making it 5.3% larger.

Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
3.8Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
4.0Bparameters
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
4.0B
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Wed May 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini Reasoning does not.

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

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

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning was released on 2025-04-30, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is 5 months newer than Phi 4 Mini Reasoning.

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

Apr 30, 2025

1.0 years ago

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

7 months ago

4mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-02-01, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi 4 Mini Reasoning's training data extends to 2025-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking's cutoff date.

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

Feb 2025

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (64.1% vs 52.0%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Phi 4 Mini Reasoning vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking.

Which is better, Phi 4 Mini Reasoning or Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi 4 Mini Reasoning is made by Microsoft and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Phi 4 Mini Reasoning compare to Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking in benchmarks?

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning scores MATH-500: 94.6%, AIME: 57.5%, GPQA: 52.0%. Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 94.2%, ScreenSpot: 92.9%, MMBench-V1.1: 86.7%, MMLU-Redux: 86.0%, AI2D: 84.9%.

What are the context window sizes for Phi 4 Mini Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Phi 4 Mini Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Phi 4 Mini Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning is developed by Microsoft and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.