Model Comparison

Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 MaxWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 Max — which is better?

Phi 4 Mini (by Microsoft) and Qwen3 Max (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) 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.

Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Phi 4 Mini if…

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

Choose Qwen3 Max if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

996.2B diff

Qwen3 Max has 996.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 25941.7% larger.

Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
3.8Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max
1.0Tparameters
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini
1000.0B
Qwen3 Max

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 Max specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 Max specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max
Input256,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Phi 4 Mini is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 Max uses a proprietary license.

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

Phi 4 Mini

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3 Max

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01, while Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15.

Qwen3 Max is 11 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.

Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.4 years ago

Qwen3 Max

Dec 15, 2025

5 months ago

10mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Qwen3 Max'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 Qwen3 Max's cutoff date.

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Qwen3 Max

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Microsoft
Has open weights
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 Max

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (62.0% vs 25.2%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max

FAQ

Common questions about Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 Max.

Which is better, Phi 4 Mini or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi 4 Mini is made by Microsoft and Qwen3 Max 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 compare to Qwen3 Max in benchmarks?

Phi 4 Mini scores GSM8k: 88.6%, ARC-C: 83.7%, BoolQ: 81.2%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%, PIQA: 77.6%. Qwen3 Max scores AIME 2025: 81.6%, t2-bench: 74.8%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, LiveCodeBench v6: 69.0%, SuperGPQA: 65.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Phi 4 Mini and Qwen3 Max?

Phi 4 Mini supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 Max supports 256K 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 and Qwen3 Max?

Key differences include licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Phi 4 Mini and Qwen3 Max?

Phi 4 Mini is developed by Microsoft and Qwen3 Max is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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