Model Comparison

Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue May 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

160.0M diff

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking has 0.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 4.2% larger.

Phi 4 Mini

3.8Bparameters

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

4.0Bparameters

3.8B

Phi 4 Mini

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).

Phi 4 Mini

Input- tokens

Output- tokens

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Input262,144 tokens

Output262,144 tokens

Tue May 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini 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

Text

Images

Audio

Video

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Text

Images

Audio

Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Phi 4 Mini 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

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is 8 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.

Phi 4 Mini

Feb 1, 2025

1.3 years ago

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

7 months ago

7mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

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

Phi 4 Mini

Jun 2024

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Phi 4 Mini

View details

Microsoft

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

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 25.2%)

Higher MMLU score (81.5% vs 67.3%)

Higher MMLU-Pro score (73.6% vs 52.8%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature	Phi 4 Mini	Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

FAQ

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

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

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi 4 Mini 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 compare to Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking in benchmarks?

Phi 4 Mini scores GSM8k: 88.6%, ARC-C: 83.7%, BoolQ: 81.2%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%, PIQA: 77.6%. 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 and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Phi 4 Mini 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 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 and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

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