Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct are closely matched at 12.1 and 13.8 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 2.0x cheaper per token.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 12.1 and 13.8.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is roughly 2.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 2.0x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
14 reported for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct · 46 for Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (IFEval, MMLU-Redux), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU-Pro).
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens) is 4.4x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct ($0.08/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens) is 1.3x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has 63.7B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct, making it 707.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 131,072 tokens. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 32,768 tokens, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is licensed under Qwen, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 12 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Sep 19, 2024
2.1 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
1.0 years 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.
Provider Availability
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.