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Phi-4 vs Qwen3-32B

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 · Qwen3-32B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowQwen3-32B

    Qwen3-32B 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.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Qwen3-32B edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Qwen3-32B 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. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Qwen3-32B is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Phi-4, 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 Qwen3-32B sees more deployments in open source llm 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-4Qwen3-32B
ProviderMicrosoftAlibaba
ReleasedDec 2024Apr 2025
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
  • Qwen3-32BPricing 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-4Qwen3-32B
  • MMLU84.8
  • HumanEval82.6
Pick Phi-4 if

Phi-4 fits when…

  • Exceptional quality at 14B parameters
  • MIT license, clean commercial use
  • Strong on math
Pick Qwen3-32B if

Qwen3-32B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0
  • Fits modest hardware budgets
  • 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 MediumQwen3-32B vs Phi-3.5 Medium

Frequently asked

  • Is Phi-4 or Qwen3-32B 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?
    Qwen3-32B accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Phi-4 or Qwen3-32B better for coding?
    Both Phi-4 and Qwen3-32B 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; Qwen3-32B under Apache-2.0.
  • When were Phi-4 and Qwen3-32B released?
    Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12. Qwen3-32B was released by Alibaba on 2025-04-29.
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