Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Mistral Large 2.1
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct comes out ahead, 44 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 pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
44/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.175 / $0.70
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.5
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is our pick
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on price. 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 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5
- Lowest priceQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.306 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameQwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text · 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 | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Mistral Large 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 52 | 38 | 51 |
| Price | 25% | 31 | 74 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 40/100 | 44/100 | 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) | Qwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.0 (best) | 118.5 | 128.5 |
| ECI rank | #128 of 148 (best) | #141 of 148 | #130 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 49.2% | 35.5% | 51.3% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 8.1% (best) | 2.5% | 7.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.40 | $0.175 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $5.60 | $0.70 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.45 | $0.306 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | 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 | qwen2-5-7b-instruct | mistral-large-2411 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 2 (best) |
| Released | Sep 19, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | Nov 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Apr 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
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$3.15
- Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.175 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.306 per million tokens for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct versus $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (8× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (9.8× 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 Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#141 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%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 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?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Qwen2.5 7B 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, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Qwen2.5 7B 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.
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