How the Audi Q7 and Q8 are Alike and Different, Plus a Few New Details for 2025

Luckily, not too much. The Audi Q7 is long loved for its luxury interior and design. It starts with leather, a standard on all models, and extends to features like a multimedia system with voice activated assistance, a customizable driver display with buttons to do that right on the steering wheel. There are multiple drive modes that include off-road and sport, and comforts like heated front seats, rear window shades and a panoramic sunroof.  

New for 2025 are new front face with a distinct new grille and new headlights. 

This isn’t often a detail that demands your focus, but this time, it does. These headlights are customizable. There are four versions and you can choose which version you like when you like by choosing the design on the multimedia system. To change them it takes a bit more than just flipping through them; select the design you want and confirm. To change the lights to another design the car needs to be turned off and the door opened and closed and then turned on again. But that’s probably necessary in order for you to get out and take a good look at each design to decide which you like best.

Read: The Audi Q7 3-Row Luxury SUV? How Much You Get for the Price

Think of the Audi Q7 as the 3-row SUV with more space for passengers or cargo, and the Q8 as a sportier, more sophisticated 5-seat SUV. The Q7 carries a classic boxy shape while the Q8 has a more sloped rear end (though still not a sportback). The Q7 has distinct linear block tail lights with a the lovely sequential flash pattern for the turn signals. The Q8 has slim tail lights and a light bar that spans the rear end. Each also has a similar but distinct front grille; the Q8’s grille is wider while the Q7’s is framed by larger body-colored panels on either side. Video: We fell in love with this Audi Sportback

Audi offers 3 engines in these SUVs, but the choices are tiered a bit: The Q7 is offered with a 4 cylinder (dubbed “45”), a V6 (dubbed “55”) and a V8; the Q8 is offered in a V6 and V8, which has two choices: Fast and faster. 

The Q7’s 4-cylinder “TFSI” or turbo, generates 261 HP; the 6 cylinder turbo generates 335 HP and 369 lb.-ft. of torque. The Q8’s V6 engine also delivers 335 HP and 369 lb.-ft. of torque.

All have standard AWD which is accessed via the allroad and offroad drive modes. 

Read: Road Test: The Audi Q8 e-tron S Line Quattro Knows How Make a Girl Feel Special

The V8 versions of the Q7 and Q8 are branded “S”: SQ7 and SQ8. These are performance-focused and deliver 500 HP and 568 lb.-ft. of torque. 

The Q8 has an even faster option, though: The race-focused RS Q8, which delivers 631 HP and 637 lb.-ft. of torque, putting it in the category of super car next to its cousins the Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus, which which it shares a platform. 

Related: How Do These Luxury Cars Compare to the Audi Q5 Sportback?

While the Q7 seats 6 or 7, the 3rd row in the Q7 is more of a convenience row; it’s better suited for smaller passengers and without center row captains chairs, may not be a good option for daily use. Still, the Q7 is 3” longer than the Q8 and its square rear end offers more headroom or cargo space; it has 69.6 cubic feet of space behind the second row, 9 more than the Q8. 

The Q8, which seats 5, has surprisingly great legroom. The rear seat is wide and easy to climb into, with lots of comforts, from rear window shades (power shades in the SQ8).

Inside the front cabin the Q7 and Q8 feel very similar, sharing the same multimedia system, steering wheel and console. Things like the climate control panel, USB ports and cup holders are found in the same place. And both share a quick access bar just below the climate panel are where you’ll find the drive mode selector, emergency flashers and other buttons. 

Both also share a large cargo area, power folding rear seats and buttons to raise or lower the rear of the car via the air suspension system. This makes loading things into and out of the car a bit easier. 

In addition to the sporty factor, the Q8 is a bit more sophisticated than the Q7, offering more premium features, such as night vision and power rear window shades.

Audi pairs its SUVs with engines that range from quite capable to really fun. Probably, and not surprisingly, the most fun to drive was the 500 hp-producing SQ8. The V8 engine produces a lovely low rumble, even more so in sport mode. And with rear wheel steering it held its own through every curve on the road. I was able to maintain my speed through the curves on my test drive while other drivers were not. I had to keep reminding myself of the speed limit (even though it was displayed in the head up display).

The V8 in the SQ7 was just as fun, though you might feel the extra weight of the 3rd row and additional 3” of length. I can’t say I noticed that much but maybe I was just watching my speed a bit more after driving the SQ8.

The V6 turbo, while not as fun as the V8, certainly gave me confidence accelerating onto the highway, even in traffic. It delivers enough power and quick enough acceleration to handle the load of the car, even when loaded. In the Q8, the smaller size makes the V6 turbo a bit more fun. And with a price difference of $20,000 between this and the larger option, it may be the one to get. 

When it comes to kids car seats, the Q7 makes up in flexibility what it lacks in space: car seats can be LATCH installed in every rear seat. Additionally, Audi has designed the center bench seat to accommodate 3 car seats with what they call a 35/30/35 split: the outboard seats are relatively flat and a bit narrower in order to leave a wider spot between them. We measured the center seat at 15” and the outboard seats at about 19” wide. 

For rear facing car seats, buyers should consider if the center seat is large enough. Though the seats move forward and back, they don’t move far enough back to create enough space to install one behind a tall driver or tall passenger. I’m 5’8” and with the driver’s seat set for me, I had 29” between my seat back and the rear seat back. 29” is the minimum needed to safely install a rear facing car seat.  

This one surprised me quite a bit: the rear seat in the Q8 is larger than the center row in the Q7. With the driver’s seat set for me, I measured 34” seat back to seat back, meaning there’s plenty of room for a rear facing car seat behind an average-to-tall driver. Also, the rear seats are on a rail and move forward and back for comfort; you can move them closer to be able to reach a baby in a car seat from the front seat. 

While the rear seat can also accommodate 3 car seats, it’s designed more for adult comfort than kids car seats. It has a traditional 40/20/20 split meaning the middle seat is not as wide in the Q8 as it is in the Q7 and there are only two full LATCH sets. 

The Q7 and Q8 have a wide range of pricing, mostly impacted by engine size. Additionally, packages—Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige—are where you’ll find specific features and luxuries. 

• Q7 4-cyl turbo: $60.500
• Q7 V6 turbo: $65,800
• SQ7 V8: $90,800
• Q8 V6: $74,400
• SQ8 V8 $97,600

We have long loved Audi’s cars and SUVs for its luxury standards, from elegant design to leather interiors. And we love the tech in these cars, which is always pretty far ahead of the industry. However, the multimedia screen lags a bit behind your touch commands; I had to be patient for things to pop up on the screen. And the drive mode selector is tucked behind the gear shifter so I always had to look for it, though once you set a drive mode it stays there until you change it; you don’t have to change it every time you drive the car. 

I didn’t get to drive the 4 cylinder model, I found all the engine options to deliver more than enough power than I needed for highway, city and fun county road driving. And once I did, I could clearly see the difference between these cars that seem similar on paper but in reality, each have their own distinct and delightful character.