Phi-4 Mini Environmental Impact
Compact model with function calling and multilingual support
- Architecture
- Dense Transformer (compact)
- Parameters
- 3.8B
- Context
- 128,000 tokens
- Provider
- Microsoft
Energy per query
0.08 Wh
about the same as a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.03 g
Global Average grid (475 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
0.30 mL
~3,333 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Self-hosted / Azure
Provider
Microsoft
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
475 g CO2/kWh (27% renewable)
How does Phi-4 Mini compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Phi-4 Mini is a 3.8B model with native function calling and multilingual support. At ~0.08 Wh per query, it is designed for on-device and edge deployment, competing with Gemma 3 4B and Qwen small models.
Power Source & Carbon
Open-source (MIT licence). Can run on mobile devices, laptops, and edge hardware.
Water Usage
At ~0.3 mL per query on cloud. Zero on consumer devices.
About Phi-4 Mini
At 0.08 Wh per query, Phi-4 Mini is one of the most energy-efficient AI models in existence — ranked #5 across our entire dataset of 152 models. With just 3.8B parameters, it proves that useful AI doesn't have to be expensive to run. As an open-source model, it can be deployed on any hardware, including personal devices. Microsoft released it in February 20, 2025 as a text and chat model: compact model with function calling and multilingual support.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Microsoft has not published official energy data for Phi-4 Mini. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Phi-4 Mini in Context
Your yearly Phi-4 Mini footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual Phi-4 Mini usage consumes 0.7 kWh — less than charging your phone for a year. That produces 0.3 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
Microsoft Phi Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Phi-4 Mini usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Phi-4 Mini.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Phi-4 Mini use per query?
Each Phi-4 Mini query consumes approximately 0.08 Wh of energy. This is about the same as a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Phi-4 Mini's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Self-hosted / Azure, each query produces approximately 0.03 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 475 g CO2/kWh with 27% renewable energy.
How much water does Phi-4 Mini use?
Each query consumes approximately 0.30 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Phi-4 Mini compare to a Google search?
A Phi-4 Mini query uses about the same as a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Phi-4 Mini uses 0.08 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer (compact)
Parameters
3.8B
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2025-02-20
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2025-01