ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Gemma 2 27B vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49, Gemma 2 27B 35). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI116.4
    • Price$0.06 / $0.08
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  2. Google

    Gemma 2 27B

    Released Jul 13, 2024

    35/100
    • ECI122.1
    • Price$0.65 / $0.65
    • Context8K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 2 27B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Gemma 2 27B 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 2 27B for raw capability, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemma 2 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 2 27B 122.1 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4
  • Lowest priceQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.063 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.065 · Gemma 2 27B $0.65 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Gemma 2 27B 8,192 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Gemma 2 27B: Text · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructGemma 2 27BQwen2.5 7B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%354238
Price25%10056100
Inputs & features15%25025
Context window10%24025
Overall100%49/10035/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Gemma 2 27B vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaGemma 2 27BGoogleQwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.4122.1 (best)118.5
ECI rank#162 of 165#152 of 165 (best)#159 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%36.5% (best)35.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%1.4%2.5% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.06$0.65$0.05 (best)
Output$0.08 (best)$0.65$0.10
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.065$0.65$0.063 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 17 providersMedian of 3 providersMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens8,192 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output4,096 tokens2,048 tokens8,192 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesNoYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpenApache 2.0
API model ID———
API providers18 (best)34
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Jul 13, 2024Sep 19, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Jun 30, 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-3.1-8B-Instruct$0.76
  • Gemma 2 27B$7.80
  • Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$0.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Gemma 2 27B or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Gemma 2 27B 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 2 27B for raw capability, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Gemma 2 27B or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.06 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 17 API providers); Gemma 2 27B costs $0.65 input / $0.65 output per million tokens (median across 3 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 $0.065 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.65 for Gemma 2 27B (10× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemma 2 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 2 27B 122.1 (#152 of 165), Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#159 of 165) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (115.8–124.1 vs 110.6–121.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemma 2 27B 36.5%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%, Gemma 2 27B 1.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Gemma 2 27B and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 2 27B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Gemma 2 27B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 8,192 for Gemma 2 27B. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Gemma 2 27B up to 2,048, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Gemma 2 27B accepts text; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 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), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 19, 2024. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; Gemma 2 27B came out Jul 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Gemma 2 27B Jun 30, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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