Microsoft Phi-4

Phi-4 hardware requirements

Fits on one Instinct MI350X OAM at BF16. For 1,000 tokens/s at 16k context you need 2 x H100 SXM5 80GB at $3.58/hr or 4 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $2.00/hr.

Parameters
14.7B
Active per token
All
dense model
KV cache per token
200 KB
16-bit cache
Native precision
BF16

Bare minimum

Fewest GPUs
1 x Instinct MI350X OAM
BF16, 4,096 tokens, one stream
Tokens/s
199
Per hour
$6.16
Per million tokens
$8.60
Memory used
11%
Rent on DigitalOcean
Cheapest per hour
1 x A40 48GB
BF16, 4,096 tokens, one stream, live price
Tokens/s
17.3
Per hour
$0.49
Per million tokens
$7.86
Memory used
67%
Rent on RunPod
Cheapest per million tokens
2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition
BF16, 16,384 tokens, 32 streams
Tokens/s
598
Per hour
$1.00
Per million tokens
$0.46
Memory used
75%
Rent on RunPod

Configurations

Every datacenter GPU in the catalog, sized for these settings. Change precision, context and concurrency and the whole page follows. Each point is one replica: the smallest tensor-parallel group of that GPU that holds the model.

Vendor

1 x GB300 NVL72 GPU 288GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $8.62/hr.1 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $10.50/hr.1 x Instinct MI350X OAM: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $6.16/hr.1 x B300 SXM 262GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $7.40/hr.1 x B200 SXM 180GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $4.09/hr.1 x Instinct MI325X OAM: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $3.80/hr.1 x Instinct MI300X 192GB: 931 tokens/s per replica at $2.39/hr.2 x H200 SXM 141GB: 1.6k tokens/s per replica at $5.98/hr.2 x H100 SXM5 80GB: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $3.58/hr.2 x H200 NVL 141GB: 1.6k tokens/s per replica at $7.58/hr.2 x H100 NVL 94GB: 1.3k tokens/s per replica at $6.38/hr.2 x H100 PCIe 80GB: 667 tokens/s per replica at $5.00/hr.2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition: 598 tokens/s per replica at $3.60/hr.2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition: 533 tokens/s per replica at $1.18/hr.2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition: 598 tokens/s per replica at $1.00/hr.8 x GeForce RTX 5090 32GB: 2.1k tokens/s per replica at $7.92/hr.4 x RTX 6000 Ada 48GB: 607 tokens/s per replica at $3.36/hr.4 x L40S 48GB: 546 tokens/s per replica at $3.48/hr.2 x A100 PCIe 80GB: 646 tokens/s per replica at $2.70/hr.2 x A100 SXM4 80GB: 680 tokens/s per replica at $2.80/hr.4 x A100 SXM4 40GB: 983 tokens/s per replica at $5.16/hr.8 x RTX 5000 Ada 32GB: 688 tokens/s per replica at $6.64/hr.4 x RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48GB: 850 tokens/s per replica at $3.84/hr.8 x RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GB: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $5.76/hr.4 x L40 48GB: 546 tokens/s per replica at $3.28/hr.8 x GeForce RTX 4090 24GB: 1.2k tokens/s per replica at $4.80/hr.8 x A30 24GB: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $5.86/hr.4 x RTX A6000 48GB: 485 tokens/s per replica at $2.00/hr.4 x A40 48GB: 440 tokens/s per replica at $1.96/hr.8 x RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 24GB: 802 tokens/s per replica at $4.56/hr.8 x V100S PCIe 32GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $7.04/hr.8 x A10 24GB: 716 tokens/s per replica at $10.32/hr.8 x L4 24GB: 358 tokens/s per replica at $3.92/hr.8 x GeForce RTX 3090 24GB: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $4.00/hr.8 x GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24GB: 1.2k tokens/s per replica at $3.68/hr.8 x RTX A5000 24GB: 917 tokens/s per replica at $2.16/hr.

Priced configurations only; 37 more fit without a live price and appear in the table. Marker size grows with the tensor-parallel width. Roofline estimates.

GPUTPTokens/s
1 ~4.1k Specs
1 3.9k Specs
1 1.4k Specs
1 1.4k Rent
1 1.4k Rent
1 1.4k Rent
1 1.4k Rent
1 1.4k Rent
1 1.4k Specs
1 1.1k Rent
1 931 Rent
4 1.0k Specs
2 1.6k Rent
2 1.1k Rent
2 1.1k Specs
2 ~1.6k Rent
2 ~1.3k Rent
2 667 Rent
2 667 Specs
2 598 Rent
2 ~533 Rent
2 598 Rent
4 777 Specs
8 2.1k Rent
2 1.1k Specs
4 ~607 Rent
2 1.1k Specs
4 546 Rent
2 646 Specs
2 646 Rent
2 680 Rent
4 983 Specs
4 983 Rent
8 ~1.6k Specs
4 ~607 Specs
8 ~688 Rent
4 ~850 Rent
2 ~448 Specs
8 ~1.1k Rent
8 764 Specs
8 1.5k Specs
8 ~726 Specs
4 546 Rent
4 1.0k Specs
8 1.2k Rent
8 1.1k Rent
8 ~516 Specs
4 485 Rent
4 440 Rent
2 1.3k Specs
2 1.3k Specs
8 ~802 Rent
8 1.4k Specs
8 ~917 Specs
8 1.4k Rent
8 716 Rent
4 546 Specs
4 546 Specs
8 1.1k Specs
8 358 Rent
4 546 Specs
8 ~726 Specs
8 ~544 Specs
8 358 Specs
8 ~516 Specs
4 546 Specs
8 688 Specs
8 1.1k Rent
8 716 Specs
8 1.2k Rent
8 611 Specs
8 917 Rent
8 535 Specs

AMD vs NVIDIA

At BF16 the NVIDIA pick is 2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at about 598 tokens/s for $1.00/hr; the AMD pick is 1 x Instinct MI300X 192GB at about 931 tokens/s for $2.39/hr. Per rental dollar NVIDIA delivers 1.54x the tokens of AMD here.

NVIDIA: 598 tokens/s per dollar, 996 tokens/s per kW (2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition).AMD: 389 tokens/s per dollar, 1.2k tokens/s per kW (1 x Instinct MI300X 192GB).Intel: no live price, 911 tokens/s per kW (2 x Data Center GPU Max 1550 128GB).Other: no live price, 460 tokens/s per kW (4 x BR100).

NVIDIA 49 parts fit
Best value: 2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition, 598 tok/s for $1.00/hr
Fewest GPUs: 1 x Rubin SXM, 3.9k tok/s
AMD 17 parts fit
Best value: 1 x Instinct MI300X 192GB, 931 tok/s for $2.39/hr
Fewest GPUs: 1 x Instinct MI455X OAM, 4.1k tok/s
Intel 5 parts fit
Fewest GPUs: 2 x Data Center GPU Max 1550 128GB, 1.1k tok/s
Other 2 parts fit
Fewest GPUs: 4 x BR100, 1.0k tok/s

Fleet what-if

Compare whole fleets at these settings: a thousand of one part against a hundred of another. Each fleet splits into replicas of its tensor-parallel width; GPUs left over sit idle.

A
B
FleetReplicasTokens/s
A 1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB 500 x TP2 801k
B 100 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB 100 x TP1 140k

1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB: 801k tokens/s, $2,990/hr, 700 kW.100 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 140k tokens/s, $1,050/hr, no power figure.

H200 SXM 141GB: 801k tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 1.40M tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.

Size Phi-4 for a tokens per second target

The calculator starts from your traffic instead of a fleet: set a target rate and read the replica count for every GPU.

Frequently asked questions

How much GPU memory does Phi-4 need?

The weights take 29.3 GB at the native BF16 precision (29.3 GB at BF16, 14.7 GB at FP8, 8.2 GB at INT4). Each concurrent stream adds 200 KB of KV cache per token: 0.8 GB at 4,096 tokens and 3.4 GB at 16,384 tokens.

What is the bare minimum to run Phi-4?

1 x Instinct MI350X OAM at BF16 with 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. The cheapest live rental for that footprint is 1 x A40 48GB at $0.49 per hour.

How many H100s do you need to run Phi-4?

one H100 at BF16 for 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. For 16,384 tokens and 32 concurrent streams the tensor-parallel group is 2 H100s, and 1,000 tokens per second takes 2 H100s across 1 replicas.

How much does Phi-4 cost per million tokens on an H100?

About $0.89 per million output tokens at BF16, 16,384 tokens of context and 32 streams, using the cheapest live on-demand price of $1.79 per GPU-hour. The cheapest part per token is 2 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $0.46.

What precision does Phi-4 ship in?

The published checkpoint is BF16. FP8 and INT4 figures describe post-training quantisations that halve and quarter the footprint at a small accuracy cost.

All figures are roofline estimates from the model's config.json and each GPU's published memory, bandwidth and tensor-core peak, with fixed efficiency factors. Prices are the cheapest live on-demand listing per GPU when the site has one. They are a planning floor; a tuned serving stack can do better.