ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Large 2.1 vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Sonar Pro

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28, Mistral Large 2.1 26, Sonar Pro 20). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 2.1

    Released Nov 18, 2024

    26/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context131K
  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    28/100
    • ECI129.0
    • Price$1.40 / $5.60
    • Context131K
  3. Perplexity

    Sonar Pro

    Released Jan 1, 2024

    20/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28/100, Mistral Large 2.1 26/100, Sonar Pro 20/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct on price and Sonar Pro for long inputs. 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 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 · Sonar Pro $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSonar ProSonar Pro 200,000 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSonar ProMistral Large 2.1: Text · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Sonar Pro: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Large 2.1 and Qwen2.5 72B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Large 2.1Qwen2.5 72B InstructSonar Pro
Price50%273113
Inputs & features30%252525
Context window20%242432
Overall100%26/10028/10020/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Large 2.1 vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Sonar Pro specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Large 2.1Mistral AIQwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Sonar ProPerplexity
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)128.5129.0 (best)—
ECI rank#130 of 148#128 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions51.3% (best)49.2%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.8%8.1% (best)—
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$1.40 (best)$3.00
Output$6.00$5.60 (best)$15.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$3.00$2.45 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Perplexity API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesNo
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model IDmistral-large-2411qwen2-5-72b-instructsonar-pro
API providers215 (best)
ReleasedNov 18, 2024Sep 19, 2024Jan 1, 2024
Knowledge cutoffNov 2024Apr 2024Sep 1, 2025
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.

  • Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
  • Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$25.20
  • Sonar Pro$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Large 2.1, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Sonar Pro?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28/100, Mistral Large 2.1 26/100, Sonar Pro 20/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct on price and Sonar Pro for long inputs. 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, Mistral Large 2.1, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Sonar Pro?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is cheaper at $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mistral Large 2.1 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Sonar Pro costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.45 per million tokens for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct versus $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (1.2× as much) and $6.00 for Sonar Pro (2.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Large 2.1 has an ECI of 128.5, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has an ECI of 129.0 and Sonar Pro has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Large 2.1, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Sonar Pro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar Pro does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Sonar Pro has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Large 2.1 and 131,072 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Sonar Pro up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Sonar Pro accepts text and images. Sonar Pro handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Large 2.1 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Sonar Pro is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; Sonar Pro came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 2024, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Sonar Pro Sep 1, 2025.

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.