Model Comparison

o4-mini vs Qwen2-VL-72B-InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: o4-mini vs Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct — which is better?

o4-mini (by OpenAI) and Qwen2-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 o4-mini if…

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

Choose Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

o4-mini and Qwen2-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

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only o4-mini specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o4-mini specifies output context (100,000 tokens).

OpenAI
o4-mini
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Wed Jul 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

o4-mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

o4-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct uses tongyi-qianwen.

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

o4-mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct was released on 2024-08-29.

o4-mini is 8 months newer than Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.

o4-mini

Apr 16, 2025

1.3 years ago

7mo newer
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Aug 29, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o4-mini has a knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has a cutoff of 2023-06-30.

o4-mini has more recent training data (up to 2024-05-31), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct (2023-06-30).

o4-mini

May 2024

11 mo newer
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Jun 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

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

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights
OpenAIo4-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen TeamQwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

o4-mini
✓ Preferred
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
o4-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about o4-mini vs Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.

Which is better, o4-mini or Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct?

o4-mini (OpenAI) and Qwen2-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 o4-mini compare to Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct in benchmarks?

o4-mini scores AIME 2024: 93.4%, AIME 2025: 92.7%, MathVista: 84.3%, MMMU: 81.6%, GPQA: 81.4%. Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.5%, VCR_en_easy: 91.9%, ChartQA: 88.3%, OCRBench: 87.7%, MMBench: 86.5%.

What are the context window sizes for o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct?

o4-mini supports 200K tokens and Qwen2-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 o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct?

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

Who makes o4-mini and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct?

o4-mini is developed by OpenAI and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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