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Amazon Nova Micro 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

Amazon Nova Micro specs · Phi-4 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Micro

    Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not.

  • Context windowAmazon Nova Micro

    Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× 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.

  • OpennessPhi-4

    Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

On balance Amazon Nova Micro edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 1. Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not. Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× 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. Phi-4 ships open weights (MIT); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Amazon Nova Micro is usually picked for cheapest llm and fastest llm 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

SpecAmazon Nova MicroPhi-4
ProviderOtherMicrosoft
ReleasedDec 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.035 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.14 / 1M tokensPricing 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$0.315 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$3.15 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$6.09 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.

  • Amazon Nova Micro$0.011
  • 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.

Amazon Nova MicroPhi-4
  • MMLU,84.8
  • HumanEval,82.6
Pick Amazon Nova Micro if

Amazon Nova Micro fits when…

  • Lowest-cost frontier-lab model
  • Native AWS integration
  • Generous 128k context for the price tier
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
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 DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsAmazon Nova Micro vs DBRXPhi-4 vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is Amazon Nova Micro 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?
    Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Amazon Nova Micro or Phi-4 better for coding?
    Both Amazon Nova Micro 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). Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.
  • When were Amazon Nova Micro and Phi-4 released?
    Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03. Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12.
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