Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen2 72B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen2 72B Instruct — which is better?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 (by NVIDIA) 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MBPP), while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025

Choose Qwen2 72B Instruct if…

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

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MBPP), while Qwen2 72B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

64.0B diff

Qwen2 72B Instruct has 64.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1, making it 800.0% larger.

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
8.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
72.0Bparameters
8.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
72.0B
Qwen2 72B Instruct

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Qwen2 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 was released on 2025-03-18, while Qwen2 72B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is 8 months newer than Qwen2 72B Instruct.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Mar 18, 2025

1.2 years ago

7mo newer
Qwen2 72B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while Qwen2 72B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen2 72B Instruct's cutoff date.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Dec 2023

Qwen2 72B Instruct

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

NVIDIA
Higher GPQA score (54.1% vs 42.4%)
Higher MBPP score (84.6% vs 80.2%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen2 72B Instruct.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 or Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is made by NVIDIA 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 compare to Qwen2 72B Instruct in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 scores MATH-500: 95.4%, MBPP: 84.6%, MT-Bench: 81.0%, IFEval: 79.3%, BFCL v2: 63.6%. Qwen2 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 91.1%, CMMLU: 90.1%, HellaSwag: 87.6%, HumanEval: 86.0%, Winogrande: 85.1%.

What are the main differences between Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Qwen2 72B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is developed by NVIDIA and Qwen2 72B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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