Mistral Large 2.1 vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 comes out ahead, 44 to 40 and 38 on our weighted score, though Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 2.4× cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.5
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
44/100- ECI133.5
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
40/100- ECI129.0
- Price$1.40 / $5.60
- Context131K
Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is our pick
Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · Mistral Large 2.1 128.5
- Lowest priceQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Mistral Large 2.1: Text · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingMistral Large 2.1 and Qwen2.5 72B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Large 2.1 | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 51 | 57 | 52 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 13 | 31 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 60 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 38/100 | 44/100 | 40/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic | Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 128.5 | 133.5 (best) | 129.0 |
| ECI rank | #130 of 148 | #119 of 148 (best) | #128 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 51.3% | 55.3% (best) | 49.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 7.8% | 8.5% (best) | 8.1% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $3.00 | $1.40 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $15.00 | $5.60 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $6.00 | $2.45 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 1 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 200,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 8,192 tokens |
| 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 | Open |
| API model ID | mistral-large-2411 | — | qwen2-5-72b-instruct |
| API providers | 2 (best) | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Nov 18, 2024 | Oct 22, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Nov 2024 | Apr 30, 2024 | Apr 2024 |
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
- Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$25.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Large 2.1, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?
Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 2.1, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?
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); Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (2.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148), Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 of 148) and Mistral Large 2.1 128.5 (#130 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.2–137.5 vs 123.8–130.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%, Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 8.5%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Large 2.1, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2 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, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 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; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 2024, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024, Qwen2.5 72B 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.
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