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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Nike Alphafly 3vs
Nike Vaporfly 4

Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit
Vaporfly 4

£120

Typical street price · £255 RRP

35mm — road legal

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want more shoe underneath you late on: 40mm against 35mm, which is protection over a long race rather than speed over a short one.

Choose the Vaporfly 4 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 184g against 218g, a 34g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £120 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You are racing 5K or 10K — built for it, where the Alphafly 3 is not.

What does this
mean for you?

Every figure below is recalculated from your race and your current time. The gap between two shoes is not fixed — it grows with how long you are on your feet.

Over marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Alphafly 3: 179s–260sVaporfly 4: 165s–246s
Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3: £0.23Vaporfly 4: £0.15

Ranges, not promises. Both figures are against a standard trainer, and the honest answer for most runners is that the difference between two shoes of this class is smaller than the difference a month of decent training makes.

Every number.

010203040504032
Alphafly 3
010203040503529
Vaporfly 4

What you pay

Street price
Alphafly 3£203
Vaporfly 4£120■

What the shoe is actually selling for across the shops we read, not its RRP.

RRP
Alphafly 3£285
Vaporfly 4£255

List price. Almost nobody pays it for a race shoe.

Cost per race
Alphafly 3£51
Vaporfly 4£32■

Street price divided by the races the foam stays fast for.

Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3£0.23
Vaporfly 4£0.15■

The whole-life question: what each second of race time costs you.

What it does

Estimated saving
Alphafly 3179s–260s■
Vaporfly 4165s–246s

Against a standard trainer, over the distance and time set above.

Economy gain
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Vaporfly 43.2–4.4%
Built for
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Vaporfly 45K · 10K · Half · Marathon
Best use case
Alphafly 3Still the reference marathon shoe. The Air pods give a propulsive forefoot that nothing else quite replicates, and the wider platform makes it manageable late in a race when your form has gone.
Vaporfly 4The most versatile super shoe on sale. Light enough for a 5K, cushioned enough for a marathon, and the fourth generation fixed the upper problems that made the VF3 divisive.

How it is built

Weight
Alphafly 3218 g
Vaporfly 4184 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Alphafly 340 mm
Vaporfly 435 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Alphafly 332 mm
Vaporfly 429 mm
Drop
Alphafly 38 mm
Vaporfly 46 mm
Foam
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Vaporfly 4ZoomX
Plate
Alphafly 3carbon fibre
Vaporfly 4carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)
Vaporfly 4Yes (35 mm)

World Athletics caps road racing shoes at 40 mm of stack.

Fit
Alphafly 3standard
Vaporfly 4standard
Stability
Alphafly 3balanced
Vaporfly 4balanced

Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on your stride.

Race life
Alphafly 3~250 km■
Vaporfly 4~240 km

How long the foam stays fast, not how long the shoe survives.

Data confidence
Alphafly 3verified
Vaporfly 4verified

■ marks the better figure where one is genuinely better. Fit, foam, drop and stability carry no mark — they depend on your foot and your stride, not on which shoe is superior.

In your size.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£199.99at Run North West — £85 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£110.25at Runlimited — £144.74 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.