# Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen Max

> Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-4-mini-vs-qwen-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen Max leads 30.3 to 25.3.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Phi-4 Mini accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 33K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 283 | 230 |
| Context | 128K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.075 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |
| SciCode | 10.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1288 |

## Reasoning

- Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1269 |

## Math

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1275 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1248 |

## Multilingual

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1254 |
| LMArena French | — | 1330 |
| LMArena German | — | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1142 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1274 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1288 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1277 |

## FAQ

### Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen Max?

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen Max?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Phi-4 Mini or Qwen Max better for coding?

Qwen Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 30.7 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Phi-4 Mini does, with 128K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen Max share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.