Model Comparison
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 MaxWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max — which is better?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3.8 Max (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 Qwen3.8 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct if…
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Qwen3.8 Max if…
- 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
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.8 Max has 2327.3B more parameters than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct, making it 3201.2% 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 Max supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.
Qwen3.8 Max can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Qwen3.8 Max
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is licensed under Qwen, while Qwen3.8 Max uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Qwen
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19, while Qwen3.8 Max was released on 2026-08-02.
Qwen3.8 Max is 23 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.
Sep 19, 2024
1.9 years ago
Aug 2, 2026
1 days 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
Key Takeaways
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max.