Phi-4 vs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B: the real cost to run each

The honest, $0-markup cost to run Phi-4 (Microsoft, 14B) and DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B (deepseek-ai, 8B), side by side — free on your own machine, on your own rented GPU at the vendor's price, or via your own API key.

Phi-4 vs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B — cost comparison

Which should you pick?

• Easiest to run locally: DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B (needs ~8.0 GB VRAM at its default quant).
• Pay-as-you-go (your own API key): Phi-4 ~$0.11/1M vs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B ~$0.16/1M — size-based estimates; open the advisor for live prices.
• Cheapest to rent by the hour: DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B (from $0.06/hr on one rented box).
• Longest context: DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B (131.1K tokens).

VRAM, size, context and license are facts from the catalog and the shared cost engine; API prices are real where we have them (labeled "est." otherwise). We don't rank model quality or quote benchmarks here.

Full cost breakdown: Phi-4 →
Full cost breakdown: DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B →

Open the free Spanvero advisor → to compare them live for your exact workload and hardware.

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Spanvero · All comparisons · Prices as of 2026-07-27. $0 markup, your own accounts, we never resell compute. © 2026 Cynosure LLC.