Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49, Claude Haiku 3.5 46). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
49/100- ECI116.4
- Price$0.06 / $0.08
- Context128K
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3.5
46/100- ECI127.0
- Price$0.80 / $4.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
50/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.05 / $0.10
- Context131K
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, Claude Haiku 3.5 46/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Haiku 3.5 for raw capability and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 3.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 · 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 · Claude Haiku 3.5 $1.60 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Haiku 3.5Claude Haiku 3.5 200,000 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3.5Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Claude Haiku 3.5 | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 35 | 48 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 100 | 38 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 60 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 46/100 | 50/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Claude Haiku 3.5Anthropic | Qwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 116.4 | 127.0 (best) | 118.5 |
| ECI rank | #162 of 165 | #147 of 165 (best) | #159 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 27.0% | 38.1% (best) | 35.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 1.7% | 4.3% (best) | 2.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.06 | $0.80 | $0.05 (best) |
| Output | $0.08 (best) | $4.00 | $0.10 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.065 | $1.60 | $0.063 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 17 providers | Median of 3 providers | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 18 (best) | 4 | 4 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Oct 22, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Jul 31, 2024 | — |
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
- Claude Haiku 3.5$16.00
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$0.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3.5 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, Claude Haiku 3.5 46/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Haiku 3.5 for raw capability and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3.5 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); Claude Haiku 3.5 costs $0.80 input / $4.00 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 $1.60 for Claude Haiku 3.5 (26× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 3.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 (#147 of 165), Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#159 of 165) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (121.4–129.2 vs 110.6–121.2), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3.5 38.1%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Haiku 3.5 4.3%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3.5 and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 3.5 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?
Claude Haiku 3.5 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 3.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Claude Haiku 3.5 is the newest, released Oct 22, 2024. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 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.
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