Llama 3.2 11B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.2 11B Instruct is 7.2x cheaper per token.
Meta · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH). Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Llama 3.2 11B Instruct is roughly 7.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (131,072 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Llama 3.2 11B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 7.2x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2024
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH).
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 3.2 11B Instruct ($0.05/1M tokens) is 7.0x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 3.2 11B Instruct ($0.05/1M tokens) is 8.0x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is more expensive than Llama 3.2 11B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has 62.1B more parameters than Llama 3.2 11B Instruct, making it 585.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Llama 3.2 11B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Llama 3.2 11B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.2 Community License, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct uses Qwen.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.2 Community License
Open weights
Qwen
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct was released on 2024-09-25, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct is 0 month newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Sep 25, 2024
1.9 years ago
6d newerSep 19, 2024
1.9 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Llama 3.2 11B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's cutoff date.
Dec 2023
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Provider Availability
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Sambanova, Bedrock, Groq, Together, Fireworks. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together.
Llama 3.2 11B Instruct
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.2 11B Instruct and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.2 11B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.