Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen2 72B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen2 72B Instruct — which is better?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct (by Meta) and Qwen2 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.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct outperforms in 3 benchmarks (ARC-C, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval). Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Choose Llama 3.1 70B Instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 5 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen2 72B Instruct if…

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct outperforms in 3 benchmarks (ARC-C, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval).

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2.0B diff

Qwen2 72B Instruct has 2.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 70B Instruct, making it 2.9% larger.

Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
70.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
72.0Bparameters
70.0B
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
72.0B
Qwen2 72B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 70B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 70B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Qwen2 72B Instruct uses tongyi-qianwen.

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

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Qwen2 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Both models were released on 2024-07-23.

They likely represent similar generations of model development.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

Qwen2 72B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

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)
Higher ARC-C score (94.8% vs 68.9%)
Higher MMLU score (83.6% vs 82.3%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (66.4% vs 64.4%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher GPQA score (42.4% vs 41.7%)
Higher HumanEval score (86.0% vs 80.5%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen2 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen2 72B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen2 72B Instruct.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance. Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is made by Meta and Qwen2 72B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Llama 3.1 70B Instruct compare to Qwen2 72B Instruct in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct scores GSM-8K (CoT): 95.1%, ARC-C: 94.8%, API-Bank: 90.0%, IFEval: 87.5%, Multilingual MGSM (CoT): 86.9%. Qwen2 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 91.1%, CMMLU: 90.1%, HellaSwag: 87.6%, HumanEval: 86.0%, Winogrande: 85.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct supports 128K tokens and Qwen2 72B Instruct 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 70B Instruct and Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs tongyi-qianwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is developed by Meta and Qwen2 72B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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