Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) vs Microsoft: Phi 4: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Verified 2026 FinOps benchmark comparing Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free) vs Microsoft: Phi 4 (microsoft/phi-4). Simulate cache read multipliers, context cliffs, MAU bills, and P90 latency.
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free): Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $0/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
Microsoft: Phi 4 (microsoft/phi-4) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Microsoft: Phi 4: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $0.035/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (API ID: poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free) vs Microsoft: Phi 4 (API ID: microsoft/phi-4), Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) offers lower standard input pricing at $0/1M tokens ($0/1M output), while Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) leads in cached prefix economics at $0/1M tokens (50% discount). Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) achieves a 0ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (280ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) | Microsoft: Phi 4 | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free | microsoft/phi-4 | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0 / $0 | $0.07 / $0.14 | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0/1M (50% Off) | $0.035/1M (50% Off) | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) |
| Context Window / Max Output | 256K In / 32K Out | 16K In / 14K Out | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (-0ms) |
Laguna S 2.1 is the latest coding agent model from [Poolside](<https://poolside.ai/>). Laguna S 2.1 is a 118B total parameter model with 8B active parameters, scoring 70.2% on Term
[Microsoft Research](/microsoft) Phi-4 is designed to perform well in complex reasoning tasks and can operate efficiently in situations with limited memory or where quick responses
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🛰️Switch from Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) to Microsoft: Phi 4
[Microsoft Research](/microsoft) Phi-4 is designed to perform well in complex reasoning tasks and can operate efficiently in situations with limited memory or where quick responses Verified P90 latency of 280ms.