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Gemma 2 2B 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

Gemma 2 2B specs · Phi-4 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowPhi-4

    Phi-4 accepts 16K tokens vs 8.2K, 2.0× 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.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Phi-4 edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Gemma 2 2B's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Phi-4 accepts 16K tokens vs 8.2K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Phi-4 is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Gemma 2 2B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Gemma 2 2B is usually picked for on device and edge deployment 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

SpecGemma 2 2BPhi-4
ProviderGoogleMicrosoft
ReleasedJul 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window8.2K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Gemma License)Yes (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.

  • Gemma 2 2BPricing 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.

Gemma 2 2BPhi-4
  • MMLU,84.8
  • HumanEval,82.6
Pick Gemma 2 2B if

Gemma 2 2B fits when…

  • Tiny, runs on phones
  • Wide tooling
Pick Phi-4 if

Phi-4 fits when…

  • Exceptional quality at 14B parameters
  • MIT license, clean commercial use
  • Strong on math
  • Long-context tasks, handles 16K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 2B.
Don't want either?

Consider Gemini 3 Pro

Google's late-2025 flagship, set new benchmarks on long-context, vision, and reasoning at competitive pricing.

See Gemini 3 Pro specsGemma 2 2B vs Gemini 3 ProPhi-4 vs Gemini 3 Pro

Frequently asked

  • Is Gemma 2 2B 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?
    Phi-4 accepts 16K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 2B.
  • Is Gemma 2 2B or Phi-4 better for coding?
    Both Gemma 2 2B 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?
    Both ship with open weights. Gemma 2 2B is licensed under Gemma License; Phi-4 under MIT.
  • When were Gemma 2 2B and Phi-4 released?
    Gemma 2 2B was released by Google on 2024-07-31. Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12.
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