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Phi-3.5 Medium vs SmolLM2 1.7B

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

Updated

Phi-3.5 Medium specs · SmolLM2 1.7B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowPhi-3.5 Medium

    Phi-3.5 Medium accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K, 15.6× 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-3.5 Medium edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against SmolLM2 1.7B's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Phi-3.5 Medium accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K, 15.6× 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.

SmolLM2 1.7B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Phi-3.5 Medium, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Phi-3.5 Medium is usually picked for on device and edge deployment workloads, while SmolLM2 1.7B 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

SpecPhi-3.5 MediumSmolLM2 1.7B
ProviderMicrosoftOther
ReleasedAug 2024Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens8.2K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (MIT)Yes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesNo

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.

  • Phi-3.5 MediumPricing unavailable
  • SmolLM2 1.7BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

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

Phi-3.5 MediumSmolLM2 1.7B
  • MMLU78.9
Pick Phi-3.5 Medium if

Phi-3.5 Medium fits when…

  • MIT license
  • 128k context
  • Strong reasoning at 14B
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 8.2K for SmolLM2 1.7B.
Pick SmolLM2 1.7B if

SmolLM2 1.7B fits when…

  • Truly tiny
  • Apache-2.0
  • Runs on phones
Don't want either?

Consider Phi-4

Microsoft's 14B model, exceptional quality-per-parameter via curated synthetic training data.

See Phi-4 specsPhi-3.5 Medium vs Phi-4SmolLM2 1.7B vs Phi-4

Frequently asked

  • Is Phi-3.5 Medium or SmolLM2 1.7B 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-3.5 Medium accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K for SmolLM2 1.7B.
  • Is Phi-3.5 Medium or SmolLM2 1.7B better for coding?
    Both Phi-3.5 Medium and SmolLM2 1.7B 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. Phi-3.5 Medium is licensed under MIT; SmolLM2 1.7B under Apache-2.0.
  • When were Phi-3.5 Medium and SmolLM2 1.7B released?
    Phi-3.5 Medium was released by Microsoft on 2024-08-20. SmolLM2 1.7B was released by Other on 2024-11-01.
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