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Phi-4 vs Qwen2.5-72B

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

Updated

Phi-4 specs · Qwen2.5-72B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowQwen2.5-72B

    Qwen2.5-72B accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksQwen2.5-72B

    Qwen2.5-72B leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on MMLU (broad academic knowledge), where it scores 86.0 vs 84.8.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Qwen2.5-72B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Qwen2.5-72B accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

Qwen2.5-72B leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on MMLU (broad academic knowledge), where it scores 86.0 vs 84.8. 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 3 months after Qwen2.5-72B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Phi-4 is usually picked for on device and edge deployment workloads, while Qwen2.5-72B sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecPhi-4Qwen2.5-72B
ProviderMicrosoftAlibaba
ReleasedDec 2024Sep 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window16K tokens128K 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 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.

  • Phi-4Pricing unavailable
  • Qwen2.5-72BPricing 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-4Qwen2.5-72B
  • MMLU84.886.0
  • HumanEval82.6
Pick Phi-4 if

Phi-4 fits when…

  • Exceptional quality at 14B parameters
  • MIT license, clean commercial use
  • Strong on math
Pick Qwen2.5-72B if

Qwen2.5-72B fits when…

  • Mature deployment
  • Apache-2.0
  • Strong multilingual
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
Don't want either?

Consider Phi-3.5 Medium

14B Phi-3.5, predecessor to Phi-4 with strong benchmark efficiency for its size.

See Phi-3.5 Medium specsPhi-4 vs Phi-3.5 MediumQwen2.5-72B vs Phi-3.5 Medium

Frequently asked

  • Is Phi-4 or Qwen2.5-72B 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?
    Qwen2.5-72B accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Phi-4 or Qwen2.5-72B better for coding?
    Both Phi-4 and Qwen2.5-72B 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-4 is licensed under MIT; Qwen2.5-72B under Apache-2.0.
  • When were Phi-4 and Qwen2.5-72B released?
    Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12. Qwen2.5-72B was released by Alibaba on 2024-09-19.
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