Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs DeepSeek: R1 — API Pricing Comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 84% cheaper than DeepSeek: R1 at the same token volume. Data as of 2026-02-27.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
qwen
Total /1M tokens
$0.510Input $0.120 · Output $0.390
Context: 32K tokens
Full details →Context: 32K tokens
DeepSeek: R1
deepseek
Total /1M tokens
$3.200Input $0.700 · Output $2.500
Context: 64K tokens
Full details →Context: 64K tokens
Monthly Cost Comparison
| Monthly usage | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | DeepSeek: R1 | Savings with Qwen2.5 72B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens/month | $0.51 | $3.20 | $2.69 |
| 10M tokens/month | $5.10 | $32.00 | $26.90 |
| 100M tokens/month | $51.00 | $320.00 | $269.00 |
| 1B tokens/month | $510.00 | $3,200.00 | $2,690.00 |
Use both automatically — let AI decide
StormRouter routes each prompt to the cheapest model that meets your quality requirements.
Use Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for simple tasks, DeepSeek: R1 only when complexity demands it.