Phi 4 alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to Phi 4 is Hermes 3 70B Instruct — comparable intelligence (5.1 vs 4.9); for a cheaper option, Hy3 preview runs $0.063/M vs $0.070/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
hy3-preview
$0.063/M input · 33.6 intel
gpt-oss-120b
$0.037/M input · 23.8 intel
glm-4.7-flash
$0.060/M input · 22.9 intel
gpt-5-nano
$0.050/M input · 19.9 intel
gpt-5-nano:batch
$0.025/M input · 19.9 intel
north-mini-code:free
Free/M input · 19.8 intel
Smarter alternatives
Open-source alternatives
kimi-k3
57.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3:batch
44.4 intel · open weights · 524K ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Phi 4?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct is the closest alternative to Phi 4, with an Intelligence Index of 5.1 (Phi 4 scores 4.9) at $0.700 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Phi 4?
Yes — Hy3 preview costs $0.063 per million input tokens versus $0.070 for Phi 4, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to Phi 4?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Phi 4 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.