Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 Coder 3B: the real cost to run each

The honest, $0-markup cost to run Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct (Qwen, 1.5B) and Qwen2.5 Coder 3B (Qwen, 3.1B), side by side — free on your own machine, on your own rented GPU at the vendor's price, or via your own API key.

Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 Coder 3B — cost comparison

	Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct	Qwen2.5 Coder 3B
Parameters	1.5B	3.1B
Context window	32.8K	32.8K
License	Commercial OK	Restricted
VRAM to run	~3.0 GB (Q4_K_M)	~4.0 GB (Q4_K_M)
Rent a GPU	$0.26/hr	$0.26/hr
Your API key	$0.11/1M (est.)	$0.12/1M (est.)

Which should you pick?

Easiest to run locally: Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct (needs ~3.0 GB VRAM at its default quant).
Pay-as-you-go (your own API key): Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct ~$0.11/1M vs Qwen2.5 Coder 3B ~$0.12/1M — size-based estimates; open the advisor for live prices.
Cheapest to rent by the hour: Either.
Longest context: Either — same context window.

VRAM, size, context and license are facts from the catalog and the shared cost engine; API prices are real where we have them (labeled "est." otherwise). We don't rank model quality or quote benchmarks here.

Full cost breakdown: Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct →
Full cost breakdown: Qwen2.5 Coder 3B →

Open the free Spanvero advisor → to compare them live for your exact workload and hardware.