Model Comparison
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking — which is better?
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct (by Microsoft) and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking (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.
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro). Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct if…
- you are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has 27.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking, making it 81.8% larger.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct does not.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is 13 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.
Aug 23, 2024
1.9 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
10 months ago
1.1yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
View detailsMicrosoft
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.