Qwen3 4B vs Phi 4 mini instruct: the real cost to run each

The honest, $0-markup cost to run Qwen3 4B (Qwen, 4B) and Phi 4 mini instruct (microsoft, 3.8B), side by side — free on your own machine, on your own rented GPU at the vendor's price, or via your own API key.

Qwen3 4B vs Phi 4 mini instruct — cost comparison

	Qwen3 4B	Phi 4 mini instruct
Parameters	4B	3.8B
Context window	41K	131.1K
License	Commercial OK	Commercial OK
VRAM to run	~5.0 GB (Q4_K_M)	~6.0 GB (Q4_K_M)
Rent a GPU	$0.26/hr	$0.26/hr
Your API key	$0.13/1M (est.)	$0.13/1M (est.)

Which should you pick?

Easiest to run locally: Qwen3 4B (needs ~5.0 GB VRAM at its default quant).
Pay-as-you-go (your own API key): Qwen3 4B ~$0.13/1M vs Phi 4 mini instruct ~$0.13/1M — size-based estimates; open the advisor for live prices.
Cheapest to rent by the hour: Either.
Longest context: Phi 4 mini instruct (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: Qwen3 4B →
Full cost breakdown: Phi 4 mini instruct →

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