LLMversus

GPT-4 1.5-mini vs Phi-4: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Sep 14, 2026By LLMversusUpdated September 17, 2026View methodology

⚡ Quick Answer

Phi-4 is significantly cheaper at $0.07/$0.14 per million tokens vs $0.40/$1.60. GPT-4.1 Mini is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1230 vs 1130. Phi-4 is faster at 160 tokens/sec vs 115 tokens/sec. GPT-4.1 Mini ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1240 vs 1150. GPT-4.1 Mini offers a larger 1048K context window vs 16K.

Updated: September 14, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGPT-4 1.5-miniPhi-4
ProviderOpenAIMicrosoft
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.400$0.070
Output Price / 1M tokens$1.60$0.140
Context Window
128K
16.384K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,180
1,150
Coding ELO
1,200
1,130
TTFT (ms)
140
100
Tokens/sec
120
160
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesNo
VisionNoNo
When to Use GPT-4 1.5-mini

Choose GPT-4.1 Mini when you need: 1m token context window at low cost, great balance of speed and quality, strong coding for a mini model, affordable for high-volume use. It excels at chatbots, long-context, cost-sensitive tasks. Its 1048K context window is larger, making it better for long-document processing.

Strengths:

  • Affordable
  • Fast
  • Large context

Best for:

cost-effectivegeneral-purpose
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

Frequently Asked Questions

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