Model comparison
Inkling vs Phi-4 Mini
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 2 shared benchmarks.
MicrosoftSummary
- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 3 categories and Phi-4 Mini in 0 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling leads 55.1 to 25.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 47% for Inkling and 10.8% for Phi-4 Mini.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
- Phi-4 Mini accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 66K.
Side by side
| Inkling | Phi-4 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 44.1 | 30.9 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | 2024-12-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 66K | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.87 | $0.075 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4.68 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 41 | 3 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Inkling leads
Inkling: 34.5 (#234), Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 47% | 10.8% |
| FrontierCode | 14% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1413 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 4.1% | — |
| WeirdML | 32.3% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 946 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Inkling: 29.6 (#85), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 33.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 25% | — |
Reasoning Inkling leads
Inkling: 40.4 (#56), Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 5.4% | 0% |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 36.5% | — |
| SimpleBench | 50% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 79.5% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1451 | — |
| DTBench | 87.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.54 | — |
Math Not comparable
Inkling: 31.3 (#225), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 33.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 4.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 88.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 0% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1479 | — |
Knowledge Inkling leads
Inkling: 55.1 (#49), Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 40.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 23.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Inkling: 54.0 (#52), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1434 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1490 | — |
| LMArena French | 1458 | — |
| LMArena German | 1446 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1404 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1448 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Inkling: 75.1 (#71), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1426 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Inkling: 43.8 (#86), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1434 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Inkling: 65.2 (#51), Phi-4 Mini: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Phi-4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1441 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1387 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1611 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1226 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1436 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling better than Phi-4 Mini?
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Inkling 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; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.
Is Inkling or Phi-4 Mini better for coding?
Inkling scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.5 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Phi-4 Mini does, with 128K tokens against 66K.
How many benchmarks do Inkling and Phi-4 Mini share?
2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and Phi-4 Mini has 3.