Phi 4 vs Nova Pro 1.0 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
| Spec | Phi 4 | Nova Pro 1.0 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Microsoft | Amazon | – |
| Type | Open-weight | Proprietary | |
| Context window | 16K tokens | 300K tokens | AMNova Pro 1.0 |
| Input price | $0.07/M · free self-host | $0.8/M | |
| Output price | $0.14/M · free self-host | $3.2/M | |
| Vision / multimodal | No | Yes | AMNova Pro 1.0 |
| Tool / function calling | No | Yes | AMNova Pro 1.0 |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No (API only) | |
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
Phi 4 is ~23× cheaper than Nova Pro 1.0 on output tokens ($0.14 vs $3.2 per M tokens).
| Capability | Phi 4 | Nova Pro 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✓ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✗ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✗ | ✗ |
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
| Criterion | Phi 4 | Nova Pro 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 2.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 5.0 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 5.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 2.0 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
[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. At 14 billion...
Amazon Nova Pro 1.0 is a capable multimodal model from Amazon focused on providing a combination of accuracy, speed, and cost for a wide range of tasks. As of December...
Phi 4 is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Nova Pro 1.0 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.
Yes. Phi 4 has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Nova Pro 1.0 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.
Phi 4 costs $0.14/M output vs $3.2/M for Nova Pro 1.0 — roughly 23x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.
Choose Phi 4 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Nova Pro 1.0 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.
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