AI model comparison
Llama 4 Scout vs Phi 4
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Meta
Llama 4 Scout
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (16E) is a mixture-of-experts (MoE) language model developed by Meta, activating 17 billion parameters out of a total of 109B.
- Input / 1M
- $0.10
- Output / 1M
- $0.30
- Context
- 1.31M
Microsoft
Phi 4
[Microsoft Research](/microsoft) Phi-4 is designed to perform well in complex reasoning tasks and can operate efficiently in situations with limited memory or where quick responses are needed.
- Input / 1M
- $0.07
- Output / 1M
- $0.14
- Context
- 16K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Phi 4
1.7x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Llama 4 Scout
6.5 vs 5.9 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Llama 4 Scout
1.31M vs 16K tokens
Newer release
Llama 4 Scout
Released April 5, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Llama 4 Scout vs Phi 4 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.07 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.30 | $0.14 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1.31M tokens | 16K tokens |
| Max output | 16K tokens | 15K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | April 5, 2025 | January 10, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Not supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
- Llama 4 Scout vs GPT-4o-mini
- Llama 4 Scout vs Gemma 3 27B
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- Llama 4 Scout vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 4 Maverick
- Llama 4 Scout vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Llama 4 Scout vs Qwen3 32B
- Llama 4 Scout vs Ministral 3 14B 2512
- Llama 4 Scout vs Qwen3 14B
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
- Llama 4 Scout vs Nova Lite 1.0
- Llama 4 Scout vs Saba
- Llama 4 Scout vs Reka Flash 3
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
- Llama 4 Scout vs Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
Our take
Phi 4 is 1.7x cheaper for a typical chat. Llama 4 Scout scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (6.5 vs 5.9). Llama 4 Scout has the larger context window (1.31M vs 16K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Llama 4 Scout or Phi 4 cheaper?
Phi 4 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Phi 4 costs $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.14 per 1M output tokens, while Llama 4 Scout costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.30 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Llama 4 Scout or Phi 4?
Llama 4 Scout supports up to 1.31M tokens of context, compared with 16K for Phi 4.
Is Llama 4 Scout smarter than Phi 4?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Llama 4 Scout scores 6.5 and Phi 4 scores 5.9, putting Llama 4 Scout ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Llama 4 Scout and Phi 4 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Llama 4 Scout and Phi 4 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Llama 4 Scout and Phi 4 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.