Model Comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking — which is better?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) 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.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-Redux). Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct if…
- you want predictable pricing at $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output
Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-Redux).
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has 39.7B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking, making it 120.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct specifies output context (8,192 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is licensed under Qwen, 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.
Qwen
Open weights
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 32B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is 12 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Sep 19, 2024
1.7 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
8 months ago
1.0yr 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
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.