Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct (2024) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are compact production models from Microsoft Research and Alibaba. Both ship a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Qwen3-235B-A22B costs $0.09/1M input tokens versus $0.90/1M for the alternative. 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 ~900% cheaper at $0.09/1M; pay for Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Long context | Coding, RAG, and Long context |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.90/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 2 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Local decision data tags Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct for Long context.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.58/1M tokens.
- 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 3.5 Mini Instruct
$945
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Qwen3-235B-A22B
$217
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI
Estimated monthly gap: $728. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B is $0.32/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct is $0.32/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-08-20 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Parameters | 3.8B | 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 | 2023-10 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.90/1M tokens | $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.90/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct | 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: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.