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Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 specs · Phi-4 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowClaude Sonnet 4.6

    Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesClaude Sonnet 4.6

    Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Phi-4.

  • OpennessPhi-4

    Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT); Claude Sonnet 4.6 is API-only.

On balance Claude Sonnet 4.6 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 1. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 is API-only.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the newer of the two, released 13 months after Phi-4, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is usually picked for coding llm and code review 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 Sonnet 4.6Phi-4
ProviderAnthropicMicrosoft
ReleasedJan 2026Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
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, vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, 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 Sonnet 4.6Pricing unavailable
  • 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 Sonnet 4.6Phi-4
  • MMLU,84.8
  • HumanEval,82.6
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if

Claude Sonnet 4.6 fits when…

  • Excellent quality-cost ratio
  • Strong for code review and writing
  • Reliable tool-use
  • 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 Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.7Phi-4 vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Phi-4 better for coding?
    Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 is API-only.
  • When were Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Phi-4 released?
    Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on 2026-01-20. Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12.
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