Hermes 3 405B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Aya Expanse 32B
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 32 and 29 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Nous ResearchHermes 3 405B Instruct
29/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
62/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.05 / $0.10
- Context131K
CohereAya Expanse 32B
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is our pick
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (32) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (29). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.063 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 · Hermes 3 405B Instruct $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextHermes 3 405B Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B InstructHermes 3 405B Instruct 131,072 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsHermes 3 405B Instruct: Text · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text · Aya Expanse 32B: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Hermes 3 405B Instruct | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Aya Expanse 32B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 48 | 100 | 53 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 25 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 29/100 | 62/100 | 32/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Hermes 3 405B InstructNous Research | Qwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Aya Expanse 32BCohere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 118.5 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #159 of 165 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 35.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 2.5% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.00 | $0.05 (best) | $0.50 |
| Output | $1.00 | $0.10 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.00 | $0.063 (best) | $0.75 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Median of 3 providers | Official Cohere API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 4,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | OpenApache 2.0 | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 |
| API model ID | — | — | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 4 | 2 |
| Released | Aug 16, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | Oct 24, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 31, 2023 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Hermes 3 405B Instruct$12.00
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$0.70
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Hermes 3 405B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Aya Expanse 32B?
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (32) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (29). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Hermes 3 405B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Aya Expanse 32B?
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Aya Expanse 32B costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Cohere API price); Hermes 3 405B Instruct costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.063 per million tokens for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct versus $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (12× as much) and $1.00 for Hermes 3 405B Instruct (16× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Hermes 3 405B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has an ECI of 118.5 and Aya Expanse 32B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Hermes 3 405B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Aya Expanse 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Hermes 3 405B Instruct and Aya Expanse 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hermes 3 405B Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Aya Expanse 32B. Maximum output per response: Hermes 3 405B Instruct up to 16,384, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192, Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Hermes 3 405B Instruct accepts text; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct accepts text; Aya Expanse 32B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache 2.0 and CC-BY-NC-4.0), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Aya Expanse 32B is the newest, released Oct 24, 2024. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; Hermes 3 405B Instruct came out Aug 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Hermes 3 405B Instruct Dec 31, 2023.
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 Nov 2, 2026.
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