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ModelCap

Head-to-head comparison

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (Qwen) and Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 17 August 2026

As of 17 August 2026, Qwen3.5 397B A17B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#27 vs #96); Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is 11.7× cheaper per output token ($0.20/1M vs $2.34/1M); and Qwen3.5 397B A17B offers the longer context window (262K vs 33K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen2.5 7B Instruct if…

  • API cost matters — $0.20/1M output tokens against $2.34/1M, about 11.7× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.10/1M against $0.39/1M.

Choose Qwen3.5 397B A17B if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #27 against #96 (62.3 vs 23.7 points).
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 33K.
  • you want provider choice — 11 listed API providers against 2.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Qwen3.5 397B A17B was listed 16 February 2026, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 16 October 2024.

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Qwen3.5 397B A17B
FieldQwen2.5 7B InstructQwenQwen3.5 397B A17BQwen
ModelCap Index position#96#27
Index score23.762.3
EvidenceEstimatedMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.10$0.39
Output price / 1M tokens$0.20$2.34
Context window33K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens33K66K
API providers listed211
Weight accessOpen weightsOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText, Image, Video
First listed16 October 202416 February 2026
PublisherQwenQwen

Evidence: publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Public benchmark boards where Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B has a published result
BoardQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen3.5 397B A17BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—14911486–1497Only one result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis—34.3intelligence-indexOnly one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B: common questions

Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 August 2026: #27 against #96. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct cheaper than Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $0.20/1M against $2.34/1M. Input tokens are $0.10/1M for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and $0.39/1M for Qwen3.5 397B A17B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 33K.

Which is better for coding, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Qwen3.5 397B A17B open-weight models?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Open weights. Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and 11 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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