Model Comparison
DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Qwen2-VL-72B-InstructWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct — which is better?
DeepSeek VL2 Small (by DeepSeek) and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
DeepSeek VL2 Small outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is better at 5 benchmarks (ChartQA, MMBench, OCRBench, RealWorldQA, TextVQA). Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose DeepSeek VL2 Small if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2024
Choose Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 5 shared benchmarks
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
DeepSeek VL2 Small outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is better at 5 benchmarks (ChartQA, MMBench, OCRBench, RealWorldQA, TextVQA).
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has 57.4B more parameters than DeepSeek VL2 Small, making it 358.8% larger.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both DeepSeek VL2 Small and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek VL2 Small is licensed under deepseek, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct uses tongyi-qianwen.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
deepseek
Open weights
tongyi-qianwen
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek VL2 Small was released on 2024-12-13, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct was released on 2024-08-29.
DeepSeek VL2 Small is 4 months newer than Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.
Dec 13, 2024
1.6 years ago
3mo newerAug 29, 2024
1.9 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-06-30, while DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct's training data extends to 2023-06-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date.
—
Jun 2023
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
DeepSeek VL2 Small
View detailsDeepSeek
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek VL2 Small and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.