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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 47 to 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

    Released Sep 17, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 32B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    47/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen2.5 32B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 128.5 · Claude Haiku 3 118.4
  • Lowest priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5 32B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 32B InstructClaude Haiku 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5138
Price25%4664
Inputs & features15%2560
Context window10%2432
Overall100%43/10047/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Haiku 3Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)128.5 (best)118.4
ECI rank#131 of 148 (best)#143 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions46.1% (best)36.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.4% (best)1.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70$0.25 (best)
Output$2.80$1.25 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$1.23$0.50 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens (best)4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen2-5-32b-instruct—
API providers12 (best)
ReleasedSep 17, 2024Mar 13, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Aug 31, 2023
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.

  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct$12.60
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (43). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?

Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.50 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 3 versus $1.23 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 128.5 (#131 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (123.5–130.0 vs 110.5–121.2), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1%, Claude Haiku 3 36.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 7.4%, Claude Haiku 3 1.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and Claude Haiku 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct up to 8,192, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 17, 2024. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct Apr 2024, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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