Phi-3 Silica vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Phi-3 Silica (2024) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are compact production models from Microsoft Research and Alibaba. Phi-3 Silica ships a not-yet-sourced context window, while Qwen3-235B-A22B ships a 128k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Qwen3-235B-A22B is safer overall; choose Phi-3 Silica when provider fit matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | general production evaluation | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | General | Coding, RAG, and Long context |
| Context window | — | 128k |
| Cheapest output | - | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 0 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Use Phi-3 Silica when your own prompt tests beat the comparison signals; the local data does not show a decisive standalone advantage yet.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3-235B-A22B for Coding, RAG, and Long context.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Phi-3 Silica
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
Qwen3-235B-A22B
$217
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI
Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Phi-3 Silica and Qwen3-235B-A22B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Qwen3-235B-A22B and Phi-3 Silica; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-01 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | — | 128k |
| Parameters | 3.3B | 235B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | MITOSI-approved | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Unknown | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Capability | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-09-22. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.