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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Haiku 3 vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 47 to 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    47/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

    Released Sep 17, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen2.5 32B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 128.5 · Claude Haiku 3 118.4
  • Lowest priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5 32B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 3Qwen2.5 32B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%3851
Price25%6446
Inputs & features15%6025
Context window10%3224
Overall100%47/10043/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Haiku 3 vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 3AnthropicQwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)118.4128.5 (best)
ECI rank#143 of 148#131 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions36.3%46.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.8%7.4% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.25 (best)$0.70
Output$1.25 (best)$2.80
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.50 (best)$1.23
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model ID—qwen2-5-32b-instruct
API providers2 (best)1
ReleasedMar 13, 2024Sep 17, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 31, 2023Apr 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 3 or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3 or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.50 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 3 versus $1.23 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 128.5 (#131 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (123.5–130.0 vs 110.5–121.2), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1%, Claude Haiku 3 36.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 7.4%, Claude Haiku 3 1.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3 and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen2.5 32B Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 17, 2024. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct Apr 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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