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Phi-3 Medium vs Yi-Lightning: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Phi-3 Medium and Yi-Lightning across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeaturePhi-3 MediumYi-Lightning
ProviderMicrosoft01.AI
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.170$0.140
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.170$0.140
Context Window
128K
16K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,170
1,165
Coding ELO
1,175
1,170
TTFT (ms)
150
150
Tokens/sec
100
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
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
When to Use Yi-Lightning

Yi-Lightning excels at cost-effective, fast-inference tasks.

Strengths:

  • Very cheap
  • Very fast
  • Good quality

Best for:

cost-effectivefast-inference

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