Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Terra vs Phi-4 Mini

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 34× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Terra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 2 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Terra OpenAI

59.2

Rank #17 Confirmed

Phi-4 Mini Microsoft

30.9

Rank #283 Reported

Summary

  • They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher in 3 categories and Phi-4 Mini in 0 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GPT-5.6 Terra leads 60.7 to 22.4.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 55% for GPT-5.6 Terra and 10.8% for Phi-4 Mini.
  • Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $12 for GPT-5.6 Terra.
  • GPT-5.6 Terra accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.
  • Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.6 Terra and Phi-4 Mini specifications
GPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Noometry Index59.230.9
Released2026-07-092024-12-11
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M128K
Max output128K4K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.075
Output $ / M tokens$12$0.30
Results tracked523

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 57.7 (#19), Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
SciCode55%10.8%
DeepSWE69.6%—
FrontierCode41.3%—
CursorBench41.3%—
LMArena WebDev1522—
WeirdML78.3%—
LMArena Coding1484—
ALE-Bench1,951—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 40.1 (#25), Phi-4 Mini: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
APEX-Agents58.2%—
BALROG53.2%—
GDP.pdf24.7%—
Vending-Bench 27,343—

Reasoning GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 60.7 (#21), Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
CritPt30%0%
ARC-AGI-283.9%—
SimpleBench48.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark51.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)78.4%—
ARC-AGI-196.5%—
Chess Puzzles54%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1468—
Mystery Game Puzzles35%—
DTBench93.3%—
LMCA55%—
Surface Evolver Bench83.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index159.62—

Math Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 81.6 (#12), Phi-4 Mini: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)86%—
FrontierMath Tier 470.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.7%—
ProofBench74%—
LMArena Math1466—

Knowledge GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 61.2 (#30), Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
GPQA Diamond93.3%—
SimpleQA Verified43.2%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—23.5%
LMArena Expert1492—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 47.3 (#11), Phi-4 Mini: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
LMArena Vision1271—
Blueprint-Bench 230.8%—
Furniture Assembly54.2%—
LMArena Document1472—

Multilingual Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 54.4 (#44), Phi-4 Mini: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
LMArena Non-English1439—
LMArena Chinese1513—
LMArena French1471—
LMArena German1460—
LMArena Japanese1457—
LMArena Korean1425—
LMArena Russian1450—
LMArena Spanish1448—

Instruction Following Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 76.4 (#40), Phi-4 Mini: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
LMArena Instruction Following1454—

Long Context Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 44.4 (#68), Phi-4 Mini: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
LMArena Longer Query1451—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 70.2 (#23), Phi-4 Mini: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraPhi-4 Mini
LMArena Text1447—
LMArena Creative Writing1410—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1855—
EQ-Bench 41234—
LMArena Multi-Turn1449—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.6 Terra better than Phi-4 Mini?

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 34× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Terra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Terra or Phi-4 Mini?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; GPT-5.6 Terra lists at $2 and $12.

Is GPT-5.6 Terra or Phi-4 Mini better for coding?

GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on coding benchmarks: 57.7 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.6 Terra does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.6 Terra and Phi-4 Mini share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.6 Terra has 52 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 Mini has 3.

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