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Comparisons

Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct vs Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)

On provider list prices, Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) costs $0.02 per million input tokens against $0.06 for Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct: 3.0x apart. Output is $0.02 against $0.06 (3.0x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.

Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)
LabMetaQwen
AccessOpen weightsOpen weights
Context window128K tokens32K tokens
List price, input$0.06 / M tokens$0.02 / M tokens
List price, output$0.06 / M tokens$0.02 / M tokens
Cached inputn/an/a
LicenseLlama communityQwen license
Fine-tunableYesYes

Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-08. Billed price is list plus the 7% transaction fee.

What the numbers say

Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $31 a month on Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) and $93 on Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct at list: a gap of $62, or 3.0x.

Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct reads 128K tokens per request against 32K for Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B), 4.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.

Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)$0.02$0.02
Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct$0.06$0.06
InputOutput

Choose Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct for

  • The longer context window (128K vs 32K tokens)
Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct details

Choose Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) for

  • The lower list price ($0.02 in / $0.02 out per M tokens)
Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) details

Common questions

Which is cheaper, Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct or Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)?

Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B), on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.02/$0.02 per million tokens in and out against $0.06/$0.06 for Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct. Billed on Allocate: $0.021/$0.021 against $0.064/$0.064, list plus 7%.

Which has the bigger context window?

Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct: 131,072 tokens (128K) against 32,768 (32K) for Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B).

Can I fine-tune Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct or Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)?

Both publish open weights (Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct: Llama community; Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B): Qwen license), so both can be fine-tuned. On Allocate the trained weights stay inside your boundary and belong to you.

Related comparisons

Meta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct vs Meta Llama 3.2 1B InstructQwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) vs Meta Llama 3.2 1B InstructMeta Llama 3.2 3B Instruct vs LFM2.5-8B-A1B

Run the numbers on your workload

LLM price comparisonAgent cost calculatorMeta Llama 3.2 3B InstructQwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)

Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.

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