Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Microsoft · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Phi 4 Mini
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Qwen3 Max
- 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
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Qwen3 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 Max has 996.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 25941.7% larger.
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).
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.
MIT
Open weights
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.
Feb 1, 2025
1.6 years ago
Dec 15, 2025
8 months ago
10mo newerKnowledge 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.
Jun 2024
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Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Phi 4 Mini and Qwen3 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 Max.