Phi 4 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking leads the LLM Stats Score 26.8 to 5.5. Phi 4 is 13.8x cheaper per token.
Microsoft · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking leads the overall LLM Stats Score 26.8 to 5.5, ranking #146 overall.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Phi 4 is roughly 13.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Phi 4
- cost matters — it's about 13.8x cheaper per token
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
- overall performance matters — it scores 26.8 and ranks #146 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
13 reported for Phi 4 · 67 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Phi 4 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (IFEval, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, SimpleQA).
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Phi 4 ($0.07/1M tokens) is 6.4x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens).
For output processing, Phi 4 ($0.14/1M tokens) is 24.9x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than Phi 4.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking has 221.3B more parameters than Phi 4, making it 1505.4% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Phi 4's 16,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Phi 4 is limited to 16,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 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
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi 4 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 was released on 2024-12-12, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is 9 months newer than Phi 4.
Dec 12, 2024
1.7 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
9mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's cutoff date.
Jun 2024
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Provider Availability
Phi 4 is available from DeepInfra. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
Phi 4
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Phi 4 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Phi 4 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.