Model Comparison
Phi 4 Reasoning vs Qwen3 30B A3BWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 30B A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Phi 4 Reasoning vs Qwen3 30B A3B — which is better?
Phi 4 Reasoning (by Microsoft) and Qwen3 30B A3B (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 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 30B A3B is better at 4 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, Arena Hard, LiveCodeBench). Qwen3 30B A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Phi 4 Reasoning if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
Choose Qwen3 30B A3B if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 5 shared benchmarks
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Phi 4 Reasoning outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 30B A3B is better at 4 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, Arena Hard, LiveCodeBench).
Qwen3 30B A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 30B A3B has 16.5B more parameters than Phi 4 Reasoning, making it 117.9% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 30B A3B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 30B A3B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi 4 Reasoning is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 30B A3B 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 was released on 2025-04-30, while Qwen3 30B A3B was released on 2025-04-29.
Phi 4 Reasoning is 0 month newer than Qwen3 30B A3B.
Apr 30, 2025
1.2 years ago
1d newerApr 29, 2025
1.2 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Reasoning has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-03-01, while Qwen3 30B A3B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4 Reasoning's training data extends to 2025-03-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 30B A3B's cutoff date.
Mar 2025
—
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Phi 4 Reasoning
View detailsMicrosoft
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen3 30B A3B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Phi 4 Reasoning and Qwen3 30B A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
| Feature | | |
|---|
FAQ
Common questions about Phi 4 Reasoning vs Qwen3 30B A3B.