Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs QvQ-72B-PreviewWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Preview across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs QvQ-72B-Preview — which is better?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (by Meta) and QvQ-72B-Preview (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.

Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.89/M input and $0.89/M output

Choose QvQ-72B-Preview if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2024

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Previewdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

331.6B diff

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has 331.6B more parameters than QvQ-72B-Preview, making it 451.8% larger.

Meta
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
405.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview
73.4Bparameters
405.0B
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
73.4B
QvQ-72B-Preview

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meta
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

QvQ-72B-Preview supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 405B Instruct does not.

QvQ-72B-Preview can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

QvQ-72B-Preview

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while QvQ-72B-Preview uses Qwen.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

QvQ-72B-Preview

Qwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while QvQ-72B-Preview was released on 2024-12-25.

QvQ-72B-Preview is 5 months newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

QvQ-72B-Preview

Dec 25, 2024

1.6 years ago

5mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Meta
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

QvQ-72B-Preview

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Preview side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
✓ Preferred
QvQ-72B-Preview
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meta
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs QvQ-72B-Preview.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct or QvQ-72B-Preview?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (Meta) and QvQ-72B-Preview (Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Llama 3.1 405B Instruct compare to QvQ-72B-Preview in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct scores ARC-C: 96.9%, GSM8k: 96.8%, API-Bank: 92.0%, Multilingual MGSM (CoT): 91.6%, HumanEval: 89.0%. QvQ-72B-Preview scores MathVista: 71.4%, MMMU: 70.3%, MathVision: 35.9%, OlympiadBench: 20.4%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Preview?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct supports 128K tokens and QvQ-72B-Preview supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Preview?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs Qwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and QvQ-72B-Preview?

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is developed by Meta and QvQ-72B-Preview is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

Related comparisons