Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 or Phi-4?

Phi-4 is cheaper for both input ($0.07/M tokens) and output ($0.14/M tokens), compared to DeepSeek V3 at $0.27/$1.10 per million tokens.

Which is faster, DeepSeek V3 or Phi-4?

Phi-4 is faster at 160 tokens/sec with a TTFT of 100ms, compared to DeepSeek V3 at 85 tokens/sec and 220ms TTFT.

Which has a bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 or Phi-4?

DeepSeek V3 has a 128K token context window, which is larger Phi-4's 16K context window.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or Phi-4?

DeepSeek V3 has a higher coding ELO of 1300 compared to Phi-4's 1130, making it the stronger choice for code generation and programming tasks.

DeepSeek V3 vs Phi-4: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Name: DeepSeek V3 vs Phi-4 — Pricing, Benchmarks & Speed Comparison 2026
Creator: LLMversus
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Pricing verified Aug 10, 2026By LLMversusUpdated August 11, 2026View methodology

⚡ Quick Answer

Phi-4 is significantly cheaper at $0.07/$0.14 per million tokens vs $0.27/$1.10. DeepSeek V3 is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1300 vs 1130. Phi-4 is faster at 160 tokens/sec vs 85 tokens/sec. DeepSeek V3 ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1280 vs 1150. DeepSeek V3 offers a larger 128K context window vs 16K.

Updated: August 10, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	DeepSeek V3	Phi-4
Provider	DeepSeek	Microsoft
Input Price / 1M tokens	$0.269	$0.070
Output Price / 1M tokens	$0.400	$0.140
Context Window	128K	16.384K
Max Output Tokens	8,192	4,096
Arena ELO	1,359	1,150
Coding ELO	1,359	1,130
TTFT (ms)	220	100
Tokens/sec	85	160
Multimodal	No	No
JSON Mode	Yes	Yes
Function Calling	Yes	No
Vision	No	No

When to Use DeepSeek V3

Choose DeepSeek V3 when you need: excellent coding performance for its price, open-source and self-hostable, very competitive benchmarks, extremely affordable. It excels at coding, general-purpose, cost-sensitive, open-source tasks. Its 128K context window is larger, making it better for long-document processing.

Strengths:

Excellent coding performance for its price
Open-source and self-hostable
Very competitive benchmarks
Extremely affordable

Best for:

codinggeneral-purposecost-sensitiveopen-source

When to Use Phi-4

Choose Phi-4 when you need: ultra-low cost for a capable model, strong math for its size (14b params), very fast inference, can run on consumer hardware. It excels at cost-sensitive, edge-deployment, math, lightweight-tasks tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two.

Strengths:

Ultra-low cost for a capable model
Strong math for its size (14B params)
Very fast inference
Can run on consumer hardware

Best for:

cost-sensitiveedge-deploymentmathlightweight-tasks

DeepSeek V3 vs Phi-4: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Side-by-Side Comparison

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