Model Comparison
Pixtral-12B vs Qwen2.5 72B InstructWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Pixtral-12B is 2.4x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Pixtral-12B vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct — which is better?
Pixtral-12B (by Mistral AI) and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Pixtral-12B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (HumanEval, IFEval, MATH, MT-Bench). Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Pixtral-12B is roughly 2.4x 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.
Choose Pixtral-12B if…
- cost matters — it's about 2.4x cheaper per token
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2024
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Pixtral-12B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (HumanEval, IFEval, MATH, MT-Bench).
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens) is 2.3x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens).
For output processing, Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens) is 2.7x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has 60.3B more parameters than Pixtral-12B, making it 486.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Pixtral-12B's 128,000 tokens. Both models can generate responses up to 8,192 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Pixtral-12B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Pixtral-12B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Pixtral-12B
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Pixtral-12B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct uses Qwen.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Qwen
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 0 month newer than Pixtral-12B.
Sep 17, 2024
1.8 years ago
Sep 19, 2024
1.8 years ago
2d newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together.
Pixtral-12B
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Pixtral-12B
View detailsMistral AI
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Pixtral-12B and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Pixtral-12B vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.