# Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs 7.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen2-5-7b-instruct-vs-qwen3-max
- 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 Max in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 17.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 2.5% for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.17 / $0.70 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 28.6 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 314 | 82 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.17 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.70 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 35.9 (#204)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 37.6% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1456 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 46.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

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

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| BALROG | 7.8% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 14.3 (#317)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 4% |
| DTBench | 47.7% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 6.4% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.44 | 142.41 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1448 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |

## Math

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 11.8 (#300)
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.5% | 73.3% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| Omni-MATH | 29.4% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 17.0 (#281)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 35.5% | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| MMLU-Pro | 53.9% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 34.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1457 |
| MMLU | 72.9% | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: —
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1479 |
| LMArena French | — | 1450 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1463 |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 63.4 (#226)
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 74.1% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1420 |

## Long Context

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: —
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1439 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 48.8 (#194)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1401 |
| WildBench | 73.1% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1446 |

## FAQ

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

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs 7.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

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

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.17 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

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

6 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has 15 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.