# Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 18× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-4-mini-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 24.8.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.4 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 280 | 82 |
| Context | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.075 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Phi-4 Mini: 27.6 (#312)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 10.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Phi-4 Mini: 21.7 (#190)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1448 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.1% |
| LMCA | — | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 142.41 |

## Math

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- Phi-4 Mini: 24.8 (#261)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1457 |

## Multilingual

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1479 |
| LMArena French | — | 1450 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1463 |

## Instruction Following

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1420 |

## Long Context

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1439 |

## Writing & Preference

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1446 |

## FAQ

### Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 18× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3 Max?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen3 Max share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.