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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct vs Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Codestral

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct comes out ahead, 51 to 48 and 27 on our weighted score, though Codestral is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct

    Released Sep 2024

    51/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.35 / $1.05
    • Context131K
  2. Perplexity

    Sonar Reasoning Pro

    Released Jan 1, 2024

    27/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context128K
  3. Mistral AI

    Codestral

    Released May 29, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $0.90
    • Context256K
01 — Verdict

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct is our pick

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Codestral (48) and Sonar Reasoning Pro (27). It leads on inputs & features. Codestral wins on price 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 priceCodestralCodestral $0.45 · Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct $0.525 · Sonar Reasoning Pro $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextCodestralCodestral 256,000 · Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct 131,072 · Sonar Reasoning Pro 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and Sonar Reasoning ProQwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct: Text, Images · Sonar Reasoning Pro: Text, Images · Codestral: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and CodestralPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen2.5-VL 7B InstructSonar Reasoning ProCodestral
Price50%632466
Inputs & features30%503525
Context window20%242436
Overall100%51/10027/10048/100

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-VL 7B Instruct vs Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Codestral specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen2.5-VL 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Sonar Reasoning ProPerplexityCodestralMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.35$2.00$0.30 (best)
Output$1.05$8.00$0.90 (best)
Cached input——$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.525$3.50$0.45 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Perplexity APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens128,000 tokens256,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens (best)4,096 tokens4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesminimal · low · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesNoYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen2-5-vl-7b-instructsonar-reasoning-procodestral-latest
API providers14 (best)3
ReleasedSep 2024Jan 1, 2024May 29, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Sep 1, 2025Oct 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-VL 7B Instruct$5.60
  • Sonar Reasoning Pro$36.00
  • Codestral$4.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct, Sonar Reasoning Pro or Codestral?

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Codestral (48) and Sonar Reasoning Pro (27). It leads on inputs & features. Codestral wins on price 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-VL 7B Instruct, Sonar Reasoning Pro or Codestral?

Codestral is cheaper at $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct costs $0.35 input / $1.05 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 $0.45 per million tokens for Codestral versus $0.525 for Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct (1.2× as much) and $3.50 for Sonar Reasoning Pro (7.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct has not been scored yet, Sonar Reasoning Pro has not been scored yet and Codestral has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct, Sonar Reasoning Pro and Codestral 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?

Codestral has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and 128,000 for Sonar Reasoning Pro. Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct up to 8,192, Sonar Reasoning Pro up to 4,096, Codestral up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct accepts text and images; Sonar Reasoning Pro accepts text and images; Codestral accepts text. Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and Codestral publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Sonar Reasoning Pro is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 2024. Codestral came out May 29, 2024; Sonar Reasoning Pro came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct Apr 2024, Sonar Reasoning Pro Sep 1, 2025, Codestral Oct 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.