Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs GPT-4o mini
GPT-4o mini comes out ahead, 56 to 44 and 40 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
MetaLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct
44/100- ECI125.9
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
40/100- ECI129.0
- Price$1.40 / $5.60
- Context131K
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-4o mini
56/100- ECI126.6
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context128K
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 72B Instruct (40). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen2.5 72B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · 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 72B Instruct $2.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B 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 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 72B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | GPT-4o mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 48 | 52 | 49 |
| Price | 25% | 57 | 31 | 77 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 44/100 | 40/100 | 56/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta | Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-4o miniOpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 125.9 | 129.0 (best) | 126.6 |
| ECI rank | #136 of 148 | #128 of 148 (best) | #135 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 44.2% | 49.2% (best) | 37.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | — | 0.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 3.6% | 8.1% (best) | 6.9% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 8.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.72 | $1.40 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | $0.72 | $5.60 | $0.60 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.075 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.72 | $2.45 | $0.263 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Official Alibaba API | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | qwen2-5-72b-instruct | gpt-4o-mini |
| API providers | 5 | 1 | 21 (best) |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | Jul 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Apr 2024 | Sep 2023 |
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
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$25.20
- GPT-4o mini$2.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or GPT-4o mini?
GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44) and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen2.5 72B 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or GPT-4o mini?
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 72B Instruct costs $1.40 input / $5.60 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 $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (9.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 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 (123.8–130.7 vs 120.5–128.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and GPT-4o mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 72B 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 72B 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, GPT-4o mini up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 19, 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, GPT-4o mini Sep 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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