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Claude Opus 4 vs Phi-4

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude Opus 4 specs · Phi-4 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not.

  • Context windowClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 82.6.

  • ModalitiesClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Phi-4.

  • OpennessPhi-4

    Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT); Claude Opus 4 is API-only.

On balance Claude Opus 4 edges ahead, winning 4 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 1. Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not. Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× the room for long documents and codebases.

Claude Opus 4 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 82.6. They differ in modality coverage, Claude Opus 4 handles text, vision while Phi-4 handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT); Claude Opus 4 is API-only.

Claude Opus 4 is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Phi-4, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Opus 4 is usually picked for coding llm and coding agent workloads, while Phi-4 sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Opus 4Phi-4
ProviderAnthropicMicrosoft
ReleasedMay 2025Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$15.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$75.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2025-03,
Open weightsNoYes (MIT)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$158 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$1,575 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$2,700 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude Opus 4$5.25
  • Phi-4Pricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Claude Opus 4Phi-4
  • MMLU,84.8
  • HumanEval95.082.6
  • SWE-bench Verified72.5
Pick Claude Opus 4 if

Claude Opus 4 fits when…

  • Set the SWE-bench bar at launch
  • Excellent for writing and code
  • Strong long-context handling
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Phi-4 if

Phi-4 fits when…

  • Exceptional quality at 14B parameters
  • MIT license, clean commercial use
  • Strong on math
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.7Phi-4 vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude Opus 4 or Phi-4 cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Claude Opus 4 or Phi-4 better for coding?
    Both Claude Opus 4 and Phi-4 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT). Claude Opus 4 is API-only.
  • When were Claude Opus 4 and Phi-4 released?
    Claude Opus 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12.
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