Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Large 2.1
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 40 and 38 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
40/100- ECI129.0
- Price$1.40 / $5.60
- Context131K
- Our pick
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.5
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 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%.
- CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · Mistral Large 2.1 128.5
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Large 2.1: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Mistral Large 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 52 | 52 | 51 |
| Price | 25% | 31 | 72 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 50 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 100 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 40/100 | 62/100 | 38/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.0 | 129.7 (best) | 128.5 |
| ECI rank | #128 of 148 | #126 of 148 (best) | #130 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 49.2% | 51.8% (best) | 51.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 8.1% (best) | 7.8% | 7.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.40 | $0.225 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $5.60 | $0.69 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.45 | $0.341 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 4 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | 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 | Open | Open |
| API model ID | qwen2-5-72b-instruct | — | mistral-large-2411 |
| API providers | 1 | 4 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Sep 19, 2024 | Apr 5, 2025 | Nov 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Aug 2024 | Nov 2024 |
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
- Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
- Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 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, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 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 $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (7.2× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (8.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 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 (124.8–131.4 vs 123.8–130.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Scout 17B 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?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 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, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mistral Large 2.1 came out Nov 18, 2024; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 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.
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