--- title: "Is Phi 4 still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/microsoft__phi-4/ description: "Phi 4: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Oct 6, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Phi 4 still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Phi 4: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Oct 6, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Phi 4 a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Phi 4 on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 12 undominated of 145 · Oct 6, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Oct 6, 2026, Phi 4 is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. gpt-oss-120b scores 148.7 higher and costs 26% less, with a covering envelope. 12 of 145 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/microsoft__phi-4/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=microsoft%2Fphi-4%2Copenai%2Fgpt-oss-120b) Current model Phi 4 Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) gpt-oss-120b is both better and cheaper than Phi 4: 148.7 points higher on LMArena and 26% less per million tokens, $0.023 cheaper at this mix. [Phi 4](https://undominated.ai/models/microsoft__phi-4/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1216.7 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.088/M [gpt-oss-120b](https://undominated.ai/models/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1365.4 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.065/M Phi 4 takes text, returns up to 14,745 tokens from a 16,384-token context, and is listed by 1 seller. Open weights, so it can also be self-hosted. Compared against 145 rated, priced models on this lens: 5 models dominate it and give up nothing, none does so with a trade-off. Phi 4 scores 1216.7 at $0.088 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [gpt-oss-120b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) | 1365.4 +148.7 | $0.065/M | 26% | | [Gemma 3 12B](/models/google__gemma-3-12b-it/) | 1334.2 +117.5 | $0.075/M | 14% | | [Gemma 3 4B](/models/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) | 1290.8 +74.1 | $0.063/M | 29% | | [gpt-oss-20b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) | 1287.7 +71.0 | $0.036/M | 59% | | [Mistral Small 3](/models/mistralai__mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501/) | 1233.6 +16.9 | $0.058/M | 34% | 145 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)