Model Comparison

o3-mini vs QvQ-72B-PreviewWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing o3-mini and QvQ-72B-Preview across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: o3-mini vs QvQ-72B-Preview — which is better?

o3-mini (by OpenAI) 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 o3-mini if…

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

Choose QvQ-72B-Preview if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

o3-mini 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

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only o3-mini specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o3-mini specifies output context (100,000 tokens).

OpenAI
o3-mini
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

QvQ-72B-Preview supports multimodal inputs, whereas o3-mini does not.

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

o3-mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

QvQ-72B-Preview

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

o3-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while QvQ-72B-Preview uses Qwen.

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

o3-mini

Proprietary

Closed source

QvQ-72B-Preview

Qwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

o3-mini was released on 2025-01-30, while QvQ-72B-Preview was released on 2024-12-25.

o3-mini is 1 month newer than QvQ-72B-Preview.

o3-mini

Jan 30, 2025

1.5 years ago

1mo newer
QvQ-72B-Preview

Dec 25, 2024

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o3-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-09-30, while QvQ-72B-Preview's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm o3-mini's training data extends to 2023-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without QvQ-72B-Preview's cutoff date.

o3-mini

Sep 2023

QvQ-72B-Preview

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

OpenAI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

QvQ-72B-Preview

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against o3-mini and QvQ-72B-Preview side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

o3-mini
✓ Preferred
QvQ-72B-Preview
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
o3-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview

FAQ

Common questions about o3-mini vs QvQ-72B-Preview.

Which is better, o3-mini or QvQ-72B-Preview?

o3-mini (OpenAI) 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 o3-mini compare to QvQ-72B-Preview in benchmarks?

o3-mini scores COLLIE: 98.7%, MATH: 97.9%, IFEval: 93.9%, MGSM: 92.0%, AIME 2024: 87.3%. QvQ-72B-Preview scores MathVista: 71.4%, MMMU: 70.3%, MathVision: 35.9%, OlympiadBench: 20.4%.

What are the context window sizes for o3-mini and QvQ-72B-Preview?

o3-mini supports 200K 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 o3-mini and QvQ-72B-Preview?

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

Who makes o3-mini and QvQ-72B-Preview?

o3-mini is developed by OpenAI and QvQ-72B-Preview is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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