Compare / Qwen3.5-27B vs Phi-4
Qwen3.5-27B vs Phi-4
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 18 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 18 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5).
Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.5-27B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 22.9 against 5.9). Pick Phi-4 if cost matters more: it costs 8.5 times less per token.
- Phi-4 is cheaper: $0.088 against $0.74 per million tokens, 8.5 times less.
- Qwen3.5-27B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 22.9 against 5.9.
- Qwen3.5-27B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 12 Dec 2024 for Phi-4.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-27B does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing; Phi-4 for sticking to the facts.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.5-27B | Phi-4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.27 in · $2.16 out | $0.070 in · $0.14 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.74 | $0.088 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.54 (Alibaba) | – |
| Intelligence Index | 22.9 | 5.9 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 44 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Released | 24 Feb 2026 (newer) | 12 Dec 2024 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 129 · 291 of 387 measured | 1,409 | 1,256 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 128 · 282 of 380 measured | 1,408 | 1,256 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 145 · 290 of 385 measured | 1,358 | 1,210 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 86 · 231 of 243 measured | 22.9 | 5.9 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 74 · 190 of 231 measured | 85.8% | 57.5% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 95 · 221 of 242 measured | 23.9% | 3.8% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 99 · 175 of 230 measured | 42.4think-prefill reasoning | 25.7 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 49 · 99 of 230 measured | 11.0%think-prefill reasoning | 19.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 147 · 122 of 230 measured | 0.33no reasoning | 0.34 |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results | ||
| Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 80 · 4 of 104 measured | 12.1% | 3.7% |
| Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 100 of 104 measured | 99.8% | 80.7% |
Show all 18 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Phi-4 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 112 · 261 of 338 measured | 1,441 | 1,268 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 285 of 387 measured | 1,401 | 1,245 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 290 of 386 measured | 1,380 | 1,229 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 24 · 192 of 195 measured | 75.6% | 23.5% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 63 · 222 of 233 measured | 77.7% | 0.0% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 61 · 162 of 190 measured | 32.6% | 3.8% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 28 · 188 of 193 measured | 93.9% | 0.0% |
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Phi-4?
Pick Qwen3.5-27B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 22.9 against 5.9). Pick Phi-4 if cost matters more: it costs 8.5 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Phi-4 is cheaper: $0.088 against $0.74 per million tokens, 8.5 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Phi-4 ranks 123 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 145 for Qwen3.5-27B.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Qwen3.5-27B ranks 82 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 181 for Phi-4.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Qwen3.5-27B ranks 98 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 176 for Phi-4.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Phi-4 ranks 3 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 121 for Qwen3.5-27B.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-27B or Phi-4?
Qwen3.5-27B: 262,144 tokens, against 16,384 for Phi-4.
Run Qwen3.5-27B and Phi-4 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.