GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Qwen2 72B Instruct
Qwen2 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
OpenAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU). Qwen2 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo
- you want predictable pricing at $0.50/M input and $1.50/M output
Choose Qwen2 72B Instruct
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2024
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU).
Qwen2 72B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only GPT-3.5 Turbo specifies input context (16,385 tokens). Only GPT-3.5 Turbo specifies output context (4,096 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
GPT-3.5 Turbo is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen2 72B Instruct uses tongyi-qianwen.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
tongyi-qianwen
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
GPT-3.5 Turbo was released on 2023-03-21, while Qwen2 72B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.
Qwen2 72B Instruct is 16 months newer than GPT-3.5 Turbo.
Mar 21, 2023
3.4 years ago
Jul 23, 2024
2.1 years ago
1.3yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
GPT-3.5 Turbo has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2021-09-30, while Qwen2 72B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm GPT-3.5 Turbo's training data extends to 2021-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen2 72B Instruct's cutoff date.
Sep 2021
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Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against GPT-3.5 Turbo and Qwen2 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Qwen2 72B Instruct.