Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.8-27B
Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- you want predictable pricing at $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output
Choose Qwen3.8-27B
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has 44.9B more parameters than Qwen3.8-27B, making it 161.7% 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
Qwen3.8-27B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Qwen3.8-27B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen3.8-27B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is licensed under Qwen, while Qwen3.8-27B 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 Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.
Qwen3.8-27B is 23 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Sep 19, 2024
1.9 years ago
Aug 14, 2026
1 weeks ago
1.9yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.8-27B.