Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B).
1× Nvidia P104-100.
Most-aggressive quantisation we have a working recommendation for. Lower precision = less VRAM = cheaper hardware, at a small accuracy cost.
Cheapest hosted endpoints.
| Provider | Access | $/M in | $/M out | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Together AI | hosted inference | $0.02 | $0.02 | Launch ↗ |
Frequently asked.
How do I run Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)?
Where can I access Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)?
How much does it cost to run Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B)?
Is Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) open-source or proprietary?
Cheapest hardware per quantisation.
Each row is one quantisation tier (the same weights compressed differently). Lower precision → lower VRAM → cheaper hardware, at the cost of small accuracy loss. $/hr refreshed hourly from each provider's API.
| Quantisation | Cheapest GPU config | Total VRAM | Live $/hr | tokens/sec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
FP16
FP16 — half precision (default)
|
16 GB | $0.026/hr | — | Compare → | |
|
FP8
FP8 — 8-bit float (Hopper / Blackwell)
|
8 GB | — | — | Compare → | |
|
INT4
INT4 — 4-bit integer (~4× VRAM saving)
|
4 GB | — | — | Compare → |
What it costs per month across providers.
Estimate your monthly bill for Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B) across every host that publishes per-token pricing. Slide your token volumes; the chart + table re-rank cheapest-first.
Cheapest provider on the left.
Total monthly cost — input + output tokens combined.
Bill breakdown.
| Provider | Monthly total | |
|---|---|---|
| $0.24 | Sign up ↗ |
Rent the GPU instead of paying per token.
For an open-weights model like Qwen 2 Instruct (1.5B), you can rent a GPU and serve inference yourself. The math: cheapest GPU rental × 730 hours/month + your electricity rate × power draw.
Assumes the GPU runs 24/7 at ~85% utilisation. If your traffic is bursty, you'll pay less for the API and probably more for the GPU (idle hours still cost rental). The breakeven analysis lives on the Self-host vs API breakeven tool.