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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3 comes out ahead, 50 to 28 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    28/100
    • ECI129.0
    • Price$1.40 / $5.60
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 3

    Released Dec 2, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large 3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Large 3 is our pick

Mistral Large 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (28). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceMistral Large 3Mistral Large 3 $0.75 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Large 3Mistral Large 3 262,144 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Large 3Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Mistral Large 3: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 72B InstructMistral Large 3
Price50%3156
Inputs & features30%2550
Context window20%2437
Overall100%28/10050/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

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 Mistral Large 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Large 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.0—
ECI rank#128 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.2%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics8.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.40$0.50 (best)
Output$5.60$1.50 (best)
Cached input—$0.05
Blended (3:1)$2.45$0.75 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDqwen2-5-72b-instructmistral-large-2512
API providers113 (best)
ReleasedSep 19, 2024Dec 2, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Nov 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
  • Mistral Large 3$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Mistral Large 3?

Mistral Large 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (28). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

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

Mistral Large 3 is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.75 per million tokens for Mistral Large 3 versus $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (3.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has an ECI of 129.0 and Mistral Large 3 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Large 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Large 3 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Mistral Large 3 up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

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

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 3 is the newest, released Dec 2, 2025. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Mistral Large 3 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

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