ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Mistral Large 2.1

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 47 to 40 and 38 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    40/100
    • ECI129.0
    • Price$1.40 / $5.60
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 72B 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. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 2.1

    Released Nov 18, 2024

    38/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large 2.1
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen2.5 72B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · Mistral Large 2.1 128.5 · Claude Haiku 3 118.4
  • Lowest priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Large 2.1: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 72B InstructClaude Haiku 3Mistral Large 2.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%523851
Price25%316427
Inputs & features15%256025
Context window10%243224
Overall100%40/10047/10038/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Mistral Large 2.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Haiku 3AnthropicMistral Large 2.1Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.0 (best)118.4128.5
ECI rank#128 of 148 (best)#143 of 148#130 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.2%36.3%51.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics8.1% (best)1.8%7.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.40$0.25 (best)$2.00
Output$5.60$1.25 (best)$6.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$2.45$0.50 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens4,096 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen2-5-72b-instruct—mistral-large-2411
API providers12 (best)2 (best)
ReleasedSep 19, 2024Mar 13, 2024Nov 18, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Aug 31, 2023Nov 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 72B Instruct$25.20
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
  • Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Mistral Large 2.1?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Mistral Large 2.1?

Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.50 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 3 versus $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (4.9× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 of 148), Mistral Large 2.1 128.5 (#130 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (123.8–130.7 vs 123.8–130.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%, Claude Haiku 3 36.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%, Claude Haiku 3 1.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 and Mistral Large 2.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and 131,072 for Mistral Large 2.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 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; Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons