Model Comparison
GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen2.5 72B InstructWhich is better in 2026?
GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct — which is better?
GLM-4.5-Air (by Zhipu AI) and Qwen2.5 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.
GLM-4.5-Air outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose GLM-4.5-Air if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2025
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct if…
- you want predictable pricing at $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
GLM-4.5-Air outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
GLM-4.5-Air has 33.3B more parameters than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, making it 45.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct specifies output context (8,192 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
GLM-4.5-Air is licensed under MIT, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct uses Qwen.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Qwen
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
GLM-4.5-Air was released on 2025-07-28, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.
GLM-4.5-Air is 10 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Jul 28, 2025
10 months ago
10mo newerSep 19, 2024
1.7 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
GLM-4.5-Air
View detailsZhipu AI
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|
FAQ
Common questions about GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.