# Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 Plus

> Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen2-5-7b-instruct-vs-qwen3-5-plus
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 6

## Summary

- They share 6 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Plus in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.5 Plus leads 47.9 to 11.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 2.5% for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and 86.7% for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.17 / $0.70 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.40 for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Qwen3.5 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 28.6 | 42.3 |
| Rank | 314 | 103 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.17 | $0.40 |
| Output $/M | $0.70 | $2.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 35.9 (#204)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 37.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 46.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 621.92 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 23.5 (#117)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| BALROG | 7.8% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 0.54 |

## Reasoning

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 14.3 (#317)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 32.0 (#67)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 22% |
| DTBench | 47.7% | 80.5% |
| LMCA | 6.4% | 36.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.44 | 146.79 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 17% |

## Math

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 11.8 (#300)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 47.9 (#55)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.5% | 86.7% |
| Omni-MATH | 29.4% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 21% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 2.1% |

## Knowledge

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 17.0 (#281)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 46.0 (#78)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 35.5% | 84.8% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 25.4% |
| MMLU-Pro | 53.9% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 10.7% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 34.1% | — |
| MMLU | 72.9% | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 63.4 (#226)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 74.1% | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: —
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 42.9 (#109)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | — | 19.8% |
| CL-bench Life | — | 12.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 48.8 (#194)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| WildBench | 73.1% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct better than Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.17 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 Plus lists at $0.40 and $2.40.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Qwen3.5 Plus share?

6 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has 15 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Plus has 15.