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LongCat-2.5 vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 11.6. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 1.4x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-2.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 11.6, ranking #20 overall.

On price, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is roughly 1.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

LongCat-2.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose LongCat-2.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 50.0 and ranks #20 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 1.4x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LongCat-2.5
Meituan
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
50.0
#20
11.6
#293
Reasoning
48.3
#21
11.7
#286
Coding
38.6
#27
9.1
#205
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.35 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$0.40 / M
Context window
1,048,576
131,072

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
LongCat-2.5
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Math
37.2#37
17.8#207
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

23 reported for LongCat-2.5 · 14 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

No common benchmarks found

LongCat-2.5 and Qwen2.5 72B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs less

For input processing, LongCat-2.5 ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.2x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-2.5 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens).

In conclusion, LongCat-2.5 is more expensive than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Mon Nov 02 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input tokens$0.35
Output tokens$0.40
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

1527.3B diff

LongCat-2.5 has 1527.3B more parameters than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, making it 2100.8% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-2.5
1.6Tparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
72.7Bparameters
1600.0B
LongCat-2.5
72.7B
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

LongCat-2.5 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's 131,072 tokens. LongCat-2.5 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Mon Nov 02 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

LongCat-2.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.

LongCat-2.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

LongCat-2.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-2.5 was released on 2026-11-01, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.

LongCat-2.5 is 26 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.

LongCat-2.5

Nov 1, 2026

0 days ago

2.1yr newer
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Sep 19, 2024

2.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

LongCat-2.5 is available from Meituan. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together.

LongCat-2.5

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.35/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
hyperbolic logo
Hyperbolic
Input Price:Input: $0.40/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
fireworks logo
Fireworks
Input Price:Input: $0.89/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.89/1M
together logo
Together
Input Price:Input: $1.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-2.5 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-2.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-2.5 vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.

Which is better, LongCat-2.5 or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 50.0 to 11.6. LongCat-2.5 is made by Meituan and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does LongCat-2.5 compare to Qwen2.5 72B Instruct in benchmarks?

LongCat-2.5 scores MathVision: 96.5%, BrowseComp: 91.9%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 88.4%, Video-MME: 85.2%. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 95.8%, MT-Bench: 93.5%, MBPP: 88.2%, MMLU-Redux: 86.8%, HumanEval: 86.6%.

Is LongCat-2.5 cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?

LongCat-2.5 is 1.2x cheaper for input tokens. LongCat-2.5 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via meituan. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-2.5 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?

LongCat-2.5 supports 1.0M tokens and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between LongCat-2.5 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (50.0 vs 11.6), context window (1.0M vs 131K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.35/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Unknown vs Qwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-2.5 and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?

LongCat-2.5 is developed by Meituan and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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