Model Comparison
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Phi 4 Reasoning Plus vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking — which is better?
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus (by Microsoft) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking (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 Reasoning Plus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, IFEval, MMLU-Pro). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Phi 4 Reasoning Plus if…
- you are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, IFEval, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking has 222.0B more parameters than Phi 4 Reasoning Plus, making it 1585.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Reasoning Plus does not.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 Reasoning Plus was released on 2025-04-30, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is 5 months newer than Phi 4 Reasoning Plus.
Apr 30, 2025
1.1 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
8 months ago
4mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-03-01, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4 Reasoning Plus's training data extends to 2025-03-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's cutoff date.
Mar 2025
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
View detailsMicrosoft
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Phi 4 Reasoning Plus vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.