ModelRefs / Phi-4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 — Benchmarks, Pricing & Coding Com…

Phi-4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 — Benchmarks, Pricing & Coding Com…

Phi-4 vs Claude Sonnet 4: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.

Overview

Claude Sonnet 4: Claude Sonnet 4 is Anthropic's May 2025 hybrid-reasoning model for coding, visual reasoning, tool use, and agent workflows. The dated claude-sonnet-4-20250514 snapshot was retired on Anthropic-operated platforms on June 15, 2026 and is retained as a historical evaluation and migration reference.

Phi-4: Microsoft's 14B dense decoder-only open-weight text model, trained on 9.8T tokens with a synthetic-data-centered curriculum and available through the microsoft/phi-4 artifact and Microsoft Foundry.

Context window: Claude Sonnet 4 accepts up to 200,000 tokens, Phi-4 up to 16,384. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.

Claude Sonnet 4 vs Phi-4 at a glance

AttributeClaude Sonnet 4Phi-4
ProviderAnthropicMicrosoft
Released2025-05-222024-12-12
Context window200,000 tokens16,384 tokens
Input price$3/M tokensFree / self-hosted
Output price$15/M tokensFree / self-hosted
LicenceProprietaryMIT
Self-hostableNo, hosted onlyYes, open weights
Modalitiestext, visiontext

Benchmarks reported for both

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4Phi-4Reported
gpqa75.456.12025-05-22 / 2024-12-12

Scores are as published by their cited sources on the dates shown. Different runs use different harnesses, prompts, and dates, so treat these as directional evidence rather than a head-to-head result.

Where they differ most

  • Cost Efficiency: Claude Sonnet 4 37%, Phi-4 100%. Phi-4 leads on this dimension.
  • Coding: Claude Sonnet 4 57%, Phi-4 67%. Phi-4 leads on this dimension.
  • Reasoning: Claude Sonnet 4 73%, Phi-4 65%. Claude Sonnet 4 leads on this dimension.

Capability scores are ModelRefs' own derived signals, not vendor claims or benchmark results. Validate against your own workload before relying on them.

Continue your research

Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to Phi-4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 — Benchmarks, Pricing & Coding Com….

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Phi-4 or Claude Sonnet 4?

Phi-4 and Claude Sonnet 4 target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.

Is Phi-4 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4?

Compare $0.00000 vs $0.00300 on this page.