Compare / Phi 4 vs Grok 4.3

Phi 4 vs Grok 4.3

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Phi 4
Microsoft · profile
Grok 4.3
xAI · profile
Results compared
16
Shared sources
3

Phi 4 or Grok 4.3? The short answer

  • Phi 4 is cheaper: $0.088 against $1.56 per million tokens, 18 times less.
  • Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 24.9 against 5.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Phi 4 ranks higher for sticking to the facts.
  • On our business benchmarks, Grok 4.3 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Phi 4Grok 4.3
Price per million tokens$0.070 in · $0.14 out$1.25 in · $2.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.088$1.56
Cheapest host, blended–$1.56 (xAI)
Intelligence Index5.924.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second42–
Context window16,384 tokens1,000,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inthe USthe 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 models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use casePhi 4Grok 4.3
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 122 of 161 108 of 161
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 49 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 178 of 195 52 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 175 of 187 56 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 3 of 153 108 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricPhi 4Grok 4.3
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,2561,440
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,2101,423
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,2681,452
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,2451,415
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,2561,442
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,2291,424
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 5.9024.9
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 57.5%90.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 3.8%37.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 23.5%83.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 0.0%75.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 3.8%37.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 0.0%97.7%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 19.0%21.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.340.34
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 25.757.7

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Phi 4 better than Grok 4.3?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Phi 4 ranks higher for sticking to the facts; Grok 4.3 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Phi 4 or Grok 4.3?

Phi 4 costs $0.088 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.56 for Grok 4.3.

Run Phi 4 and Grok 4.3 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.