Phi-3 Silica vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Phi-3 Silica (2024) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Microsoft Research and Alibaba. Phi-3 Silica ships a not-yet-sourced context window, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ships a 262k-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.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is safer overall; choose Phi-3 Silica when provider fit matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | general production evaluation | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents |
| Decision fit | General | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | — | 262k |
| Cheapest output | - | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 0 tracked | 4 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.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3.5-397B-A17B for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
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
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
$897
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
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 Qwen3.5-397B-A17B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Phi-3 Silica; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-01 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | — | 262k |
| Parameters | 3.3B | 397B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | MITOSI-approved | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Unknown | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Capability | Phi-3 Silica | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | No | Yes |
| 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: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.