OpenAI o4-mini vs Phi-3 Mini
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
OpenAI o4-mini
OpenAIUpdated mini reasoning model. Similar pricing to o3-mini with updated capabilities.
| Input | $1.10/M |
| Output | $4.40/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | General reasoning, coding tasks |
| Benchmark | 72/100 |
Phi-3 Mini
MicrosoftMicrosoft's compact Phi-3 model. Small but capable model for edge and IoT deployment.
| Input | $0.050/M |
| Output | $0.100/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Edge AI, IoT devices, lightweight applications |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | OpenAI o4-mini | Phi-3 Mini | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.17 | <$0.01 | Phi-3 Mini saves $0.17 (97%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $1.27 | $0.04 | Phi-3 Mini saves $1.23 (97%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $6.33 | $0.19 | Phi-3 Mini saves $6.14 (97%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.30 | $0.01 | Phi-3 Mini saves $0.29 (96%) |
Verdict
Phi-3 Mini wins on both price and performance — $0.050/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
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Claude Opus 4
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
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Claude 3 Sonnet
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