The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 3.3x cheaper per token.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (IFEval, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-Redux). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

On price, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is roughly 3.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 3.3x cheaper per token

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Benchmark wins
0 of 3
3 of 3
Input price
$0.35 / M
$0.45 / M
Output price
$0.40 / M
$3.49 / M
Context window
131,072
262,144
Released
Sep 2024
Sep 2025
License
Qwen
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (IFEval, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-Redux).

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens) is 1.3x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens).

For output processing, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens) is 8.7x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input tokens$0.35
Output tokens$0.40
Best providerDeepinfra
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Input tokens$0.45
Output tokens$3.49
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

163.3B diff

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking has 163.3B more parameters than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, making it 224.6% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
72.7Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
236.0Bparameters
72.7B
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
236.0B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's 131,072 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is licensed under Qwen, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

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

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Qwen

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is 12 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Sep 19, 2024

1.9 years ago

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

11 months ago

1.0yr 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

Provider Availability

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.35/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
hyperbolic logo
Hyperbolic
Input Price:Input: $0.40/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
fireworks logo
Fireworks
Input Price:Input: $0.89/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.89/1M
together logo
Together
Input Price:Input: $1.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.45/1MOutput Price:Output: $3.49/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.98/1MOutput Price:Output: $3.95/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.

Which is better, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 Qwen2.5 72B Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking in benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 95.8%, MT-Bench: 93.5%, MBPP: 88.2%, MMLU-Redux: 86.8%, HumanEval: 86.6%. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking scores ZebraLogic: 97.3%, DocVQAtest: 96.5%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, CountBench: 93.7%, MMLU-Redux: 93.7%.

Is Qwen2.5 72B Instruct cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 1.3x cheaper for input tokens. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output via deepinfra. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking costs $0.45/M input and $3.49/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct supports 131K tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Key differences include context window (131K vs 262K), input pricing ($0.35 vs $0.45/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Qwen vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.