ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Sonar Reasoning Pro

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28, Sonar Reasoning Pro 27). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    28/100
    • ECI129.0
    • Price$1.40 / $5.60
    • Context131K
  2. Perplexity

    Sonar Reasoning Pro

    Released Jan 1, 2024

    27/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context128K
  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28/100, Sonar Reasoning Pro 27/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for long inputs. 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 priceQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Sonar Reasoning Pro $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 · Sonar Reasoning Pro 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSonar Reasoning ProQwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Sonar Reasoning Pro: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5 72B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 72B InstructSonar Reasoning Pro
Price50%3124
Inputs & features30%2535
Context window20%2424
Overall100%28/10027/100

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 Sonar Reasoning Pro specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Sonar Reasoning ProPerplexity
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 (best)$2.00
Output$5.60 (best)$8.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.45 (best)$3.50
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Perplexity API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens (best)4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen2-5-72b-instructsonar-reasoning-pro
API providers14 (best)
ReleasedSep 19, 2024Jan 1, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Sep 1, 2025
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
  • Sonar Reasoning Pro$36.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Sonar Reasoning Pro?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 28/100, Sonar Reasoning Pro 27/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for long inputs. 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 Sonar Reasoning Pro?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is cheaper at $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Sonar Reasoning Pro costs $2.00 input / $8.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.45 per million tokens for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct versus $3.50 for Sonar Reasoning Pro (1.4× 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 Sonar Reasoning Pro has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Sonar Reasoning Pro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar Reasoning Pro does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Sonar Reasoning Pro. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Sonar Reasoning Pro up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Sonar Reasoning Pro accepts text and images. Sonar Reasoning Pro handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Sonar Reasoning Pro is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 19, 2024. Sonar Reasoning Pro came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Sonar Reasoning Pro Sep 1, 2025.

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.