ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Large 2.1

Too close to call on our weighted score (Ministral 8B Instruct 42, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 41, Mistral Large 2.1 39). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

    Released Sep 17, 2024

    41/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 2.1

    Released Nov 18, 2024

    39/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context131K
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 41/100, Mistral Large 2.1 39/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 2.1 for raw capability and Ministral 8B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityMistral Large 2.1Shared benchmarks: Mistral Large 2.1 51.3% · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Qwen2.5 32B Instruct $1.23 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen2.5 32B Instruct 131,072 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen2.5 32B Instruct: Text · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mistral Large 2.1: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 32B InstructMinistral 8B InstructMistral Large 2.1
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%462751
Price25%468927
Inputs & features15%252525
Context window10%242424
Overall100%41/10042/10039/100
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 Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Large 2.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Ministral 8B InstructMistral AIMistral Large 2.1Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)128.5—128.5
ECI rank#131 of 148—#130 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions46.1%27.2%51.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.4%—7.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70$0.15 (best)$2.00
Output$2.80$0.15 (best)$6.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$1.23$0.15 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model IDqwen2-5-32b-instruct—mistral-large-2411
API providers112 (best)
ReleasedSep 17, 2024Oct 16, 2024Nov 18, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024—Nov 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.

  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct$12.60
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 41/100, Mistral Large 2.1 39/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 2.1 for raw capability and Ministral 8B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $2.80 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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $1.23 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (8.2× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (20× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct 46.1%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Large 2.1 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?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct up to 8,192, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct accepts text; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; Qwen2.5 32B Instruct came out Sep 17, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 32B Instruct Apr 2024, Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 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.