Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Phi-4

DeepSeek-V3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 19 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.1

DeepSeek

42.8

Rank #108 Confirmed

Phi-4

Microsoft

31.2

Rank #279 Confirmed

Summary

They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Phi-4 in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1 leads 60.3 to 40.5.
Phi-4 is cheaper at $0.07 / $0.14 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $0.95 for DeepSeek-V3.1.
DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts more context: 164K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.1 and Phi-4 specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
Provider	DeepSeek	Microsoft
Noometry Index	42.8	31.2
Released	2025-08-21	2024-12-11
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	164K	128K
Max output	8K	4K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.25	$0.07
Output $ / M tokens	$0.95	$0.14
Results tracked	27	37

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 40.3 (#144), Phi-4: 34.4 (#239)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Coding	1417	1231
WeirdML	38.4%	—
BigCodeBench Instruct	—	45.5%
LiveBench Coding	—	30.7%
BigCodeBench Complete	—	55.4%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1: —, Phi-4: 22.8 (#128)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	—	28.8%
BALROG	—	11.6%

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 27.9 (#110), Phi-4: 17.7 (#291)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Hard Prompts	1417	1220
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.92	130.42
SimpleBench	40%	—
Kagi LLM Benchmark	53.2%	—
Chess Puzzles	—	1%
LiveBench Reasoning	—	47.8%
DTBench	82.7%	—
LiveBench Data Analysis	—	45.2%
LMCA	24.3%	—
ForecastBench	58	—
LiveBench	—	41.6%

Math DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 38.9 (#122), Phi-4: 20.8 (#285)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Math	1420	1246
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	13.8%
LiveBench Math	—	42%
MATH Level 5	—	64.9%

Knowledge DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 43.7 (#90), Phi-4: 32.6 (#209)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
Vectara Hallucination Rate	5.5%	3.7%
LMArena Expert	1405	1203
GPQA Diamond	—	56.1%
Confabulations	—	29.4%
MMLU	—	84.8%

Multilingual DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 51.6 (#106), Phi-4: 37.2 (#237)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Non-English	1400	1197
LMArena Chinese	1469	1212
LMArena French	1447	1224
LMArena German	1411	1222
LMArena Japanese	1378	1158
LMArena Korean	1337	1151
LMArena Russian	1405	1209
LMArena Spanish	1431	1234

Instruction Following DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 73.9 (#110), Phi-4: 60.4 (#251)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Instruction Following	1400	1201
LiveBench Instruction Following	—	58.4%

Long Context Too close to call

DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.3 (#232), Phi-4: 36.9 (#226)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Longer Query	1422	1217
Fiction.LiveBench	52.8%	—

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 60.3 (#98), Phi-4: 40.5 (#244)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Phi-4
LMArena Text	1420	1217
LMArena Creative Writing	1401	1182
LMArena Multi-Turn	1408	1206
Short-Story Creative Writing	—	62.6%
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1436	—
LiveBench Language	—	25.6%

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 better than Phi-4?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1 or Phi-4?

Phi-4 is cheaper. It lists at $0.07 per million input tokens and $0.14 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-V3.1 lists at $0.25 and $0.95.

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 or Phi-4 better for coding?

DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.3 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek-V3.1 does, with 164K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1 and Phi-4 share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 has 37.