Model Comparison

Mistral Small vs Qwen2.5 VL 72B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Mistral Small vs Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct — which is better?

Mistral Small (by Mistral AI) and Qwen2.5 VL 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.

Choose Mistral Small if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.60/M output

Choose Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instructdon'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

50.0B diff

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct has 50.0B more parameters than Mistral Small, making it 227.3% larger.

Mistral AI
Mistral Small
22.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
72.0Bparameters
22.0B
Mistral Small
72.0B
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Small specifies input context (32,768 tokens). Only Mistral Small specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Input32,768 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Wed Jul 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small does not.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Mistral Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mistral Small is licensed under Mistral Research License, while Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct uses tongyi-qianwen.

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

Mistral Small

Mistral Research License

Open weights

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17, while Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct was released on 2025-01-26.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct is 4 months newer than Mistral Small.

Mistral Small

Sep 17, 2024

1.8 years ago

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

Jan 26, 2025

1.5 years ago

4mo 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

Mistral AI
Larger context window (32,768 tokens)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mistral Small
✓ Preferred
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Mistral Small vs Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct.

Which is better, Mistral Small or Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct?

Mistral Small (Mistral AI) and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct (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 Mistral Small compare to Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct in benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct scores DocVQA: 96.4%, Android Control Low_EM: 93.7%, ChartQA: 89.5%, OCRBench: 88.5%, AI2D: 88.4%.

What are the context window sizes for Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct?

Mistral Small supports 33K tokens and Qwen2.5 VL 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 Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Mistral Research License vs tongyi-qianwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mistral Small and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct?

Mistral Small is developed by Mistral AI and Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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