ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 comes out ahead, 44 to 40 on our weighted score, though Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 2.4× cheaper per token.

  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 Sonnet 3.5 v2

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI133.5
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is our pick

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0
  • Lowest priceQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5 72B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5 72B InstructClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5257
Price25%3113
Inputs & features15%2560
Context window10%2432
Overall100%40/10044/100
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 Sonnet 3.5 v2 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.0133.5 (best)
ECI rank#128 of 148#119 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.2%55.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics8.1%8.5% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.40 (best)$3.00
Output$5.60 (best)$15.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.45 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen2-5-72b-instruct—
API providers11
ReleasedSep 19, 2024Oct 22, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Apr 30, 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is cheaper at $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (2.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148) and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.2–137.5 vs 123.8–130.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 8.5%, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is the newest, released Oct 22, 2024. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 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