Model comparison
Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Microsoft
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 25.3.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 51.5 |
| Released | 2024-12-11 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Max output | 4K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.075 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 3 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| SciCode | 10.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1471 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1457 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.24 |
Math Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1478 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1487 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1445 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1438 |
Long Context Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.