Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B leads the LLM Stats Score 38.7 to -4.1.
Microsoft · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 38.7 to -4.1, ranking #68 overall.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 2; 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 Phi 4 Mini
- you are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem
Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
- overall performance matters — it scores 38.7 and ranks #68 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
17 reported for Phi 4 Mini · 38 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Phi 4 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has 393.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 10238.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3.5-397B-A17B specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3.5-397B-A17B specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini does not.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Phi 4 Mini
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi 4 Mini is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is 13 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.
Feb 1, 2025
1.6 years ago
Feb 16, 2026
7 months ago
1.0yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B'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 Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's cutoff date.
Jun 2024
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Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Phi 4 Mini and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Phi 4 Mini vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.