# Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen3.8 27B

> Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 4.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-4-mini-vs-qwen3-8-27b
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 2

## Summary

- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi-4 Mini scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 27B in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen3.8 27B leads 50.5 to 28.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 10.8% for Phi-4 Mini and 46.6% for Qwen3.8 27B.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.04 / $2.30 for Qwen3.8 27B.
- Qwen3.8 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 46.0 |
| Rank | 283 | 68 |
| Context | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.075 | $0.04 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $2.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 10.8% | 46.6% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1593 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1482 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 47.5% |

## Reasoning

- Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 5.4% |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 42.4% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 54.5% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 87.5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1460 |
| DTBench | — | 88% |
| LMCA | — | 41.4% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 45% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.38 |

## Math

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | — | 16% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1456 |

## Knowledge

- Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1482 |

## Multimodal

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1271 |

## Multilingual

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1430 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1504 |
| LMArena French | — | 1465 |
| LMArena German | — | 1438 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1384 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1393 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1415 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1448 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1439 |

## Long Context

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1450 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1441 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1384 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1671 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1441 |

## FAQ

### Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 4.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.8 27B?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B lists at $0.04 and $2.30.

### Is Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 28.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 27B does, with 262K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen3.8 27B share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.