AI model comparison
Phi 4 vs Nova Lite 1.0
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
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
Amazon
Nova Lite 1.0
Amazon Nova Lite 1.0 is a very low-cost multimodal model from Amazon that focused on fast processing of image, video, and text inputs to generate text output.
- Input / 1M
- $0.06
- Output / 1M
- $0.24
- Context
- 300K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Phi 4
1.1x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Nova Lite 1.0
6.7 vs 5.9 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Nova Lite 1.0
300K vs 16K tokens
Newer release
Phi 4
Released January 10, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Nova Lite 1.06.7Coding index
Nova Lite 1.0Not availableAgentic index
Nova Lite 1.0Not availablePricing
Phi 4 vs Nova Lite 1.0 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Nova Lite 1.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.07 | $0.06 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.14 | $0.24 |
| 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
Nova Lite 1.0$0.24Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Nova Lite 1.0$2.76Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Nova Lite 1.0$9.48Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Nova Lite 1.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 16K tokens | 300K tokens |
| Max output | 15K tokens | 5K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | January 10, 2025 | December 5, 2024 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Nova Lite 1.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Not supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Not supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not 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.
Nova Lite 1.0View full model details- Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-4o-mini
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 32B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 14B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Llama 4 Scout
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-4.1 Nano
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Mistral Small 3
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Reka Flash 3
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Ministral 3 14B 2512
Our take
Phi 4 is 1.1x cheaper for a typical chat. Nova Lite 1.0 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (6.7 vs 5.9). Nova Lite 1.0 has the larger context window (300K 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 Phi 4 or Nova Lite 1.0 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 Nova Lite 1.0 costs $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.24 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Phi 4 or Nova Lite 1.0?
Nova Lite 1.0 supports up to 300K tokens of context, compared with 16K for Phi 4.
Is Phi 4 smarter than Nova Lite 1.0?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Phi 4 scores 5.9 and Nova Lite 1.0 scores 6.7, putting Nova Lite 1.0 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Phi 4 and Nova Lite 1.0 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Phi 4 and Nova Lite 1.0 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Phi 4 and Nova Lite 1.0 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.