Model comparison
Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 2 shared benchmarks.
Microsoft
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi-4 Mini scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 56.1 to 25.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 10.8% for Phi-4 Mini and 40.7% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 47.5 |
| Released | 2024-12-11 | 2026-03-31 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Max output | 4K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.075 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $3 |
| Results tracked | 3 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317), Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 10.8% | 40.7% |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1461 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1467 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 670.15 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,115 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195), Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 2.9% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 60.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 17% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1449 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 12% |
| DTBench | — | 81.9% |
| LMCA | — | 33.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 147.65 |
Math Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 38.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1450 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262), Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 88.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 44.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1454 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1477 |
| LMArena French | — | 1455 |
| LMArena German | — | 1452 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1379 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1434 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1432 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1425 |
Long Context Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1439 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Phi-4 Mini: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1438 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen3.6 Plus share?
2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.