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Phi-3.5 Mini vs Phi-3 Medium: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Phi-3.5 Mini and Phi-3 Medium across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeaturePhi-3.5 MiniPhi-3 Medium
ProviderMicrosoftMicrosoft
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.130$0.170
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.520$0.170
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,160
1,170
Coding ELO
1,165
1,175
TTFT (ms)
150
150
Tokens/sec
100
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use Phi-3.5 Mini

Phi-3.5 Mini excels at cost-effective, fast-inference tasks.

Strengths:

  • Very cheap
  • Fast
  • Large context

Best for:

cost-effectivefast-inference
When to Use Phi-3 Medium

Phi-3 Medium excels at cost-effective, general-purpose tasks.

Strengths:

  • Affordable
  • Fast
  • Good instruction following

Best for:

cost-effectivegeneral-purpose

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