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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs GPT-4o mini vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

GPT-4o mini comes out ahead, 56 to 44 and 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI125.9
    • Price$0.72 / $0.72
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct
  2. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-4o mini

    Released Jul 18, 2024

    56/100
    • ECI126.6
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove GPT-4o mini

  3. 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
01 — Verdict

GPT-4o mini is our pick

GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44) and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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 · GPT-4o mini 126.6 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9
  • Lowest priceGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini $0.263 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen2.5 32B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4o miniLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 32B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-70B-InstructGPT-4o miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%484951
Price25%577746
Inputs & features15%257025
Context window10%242424
Overall100%44/10056/10043/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs GPT-4o mini vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-70B-InstructMetaGPT-4o miniOpenAIQwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)125.9126.6128.5 (best)
ECI rank#136 of 148#135 of 148#131 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions44.2%37.7%46.1% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—0.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics3.6%6.9%7.4% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—8.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.72$0.15 (best)$0.70
Output$0.72$0.60 (best)$2.80
Cached input—$0.075—
Blended (3:1)$0.72$0.263 (best)$1.23
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output4,096 tokens16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gpt-4o-miniqwen2-5-32b-instruct
API providers521 (best)1
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Jul 18, 2024Sep 17, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Sep 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.

  • Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct$8.64
  • GPT-4o mini$2.70
  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, GPT-4o mini or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44) and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, GPT-4o mini or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (median across 5 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 $0.263 per million tokens for GPT-4o mini versus $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (2.7× as much) and $1.23 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (4.7× 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), GPT-4o mini 126.6 (#135 of 148) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#136 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (123.5–130.0 vs 120.5–128.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 7.4%, GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 3.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, GPT-4o mini 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. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and 128,000 for GPT-4o mini. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen2.5 32B Instruct accepts text. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 17, 2024. Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, GPT-4o mini Sep 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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