Model Comparison

Qwen2 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B

Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

9 benchmarks

Qwen2 72B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (EvalPlus, MultiPL-E), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 7 benchmarks (BBH, GPQA, GSM8k, MATH, MBPP, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).

Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun May 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

163.0B diff

Qwen3 235B A22B has 163.0B more parameters than Qwen2 72B Instruct, making it 226.4% larger.

Qwen2 72B Instruct

72.0Bparameters

Qwen3 235B A22B

235.0Bparameters

72.0B

Qwen2 72B Instruct

235.0B

Qwen3 235B A22B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Qwen2 72B Instruct

Input- tokens

Output- tokens

Qwen3 235B A22B

Input128,000 tokens

Output128,000 tokens

Sun May 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen2 72B Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, while Qwen3 235B A22B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Qwen2 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Qwen3 235B A22B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen2 72B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.

Qwen3 235B A22B is 9 months newer than Qwen2 72B Instruct.

Qwen2 72B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.9 years ago

Qwen3 235B A22B

Apr 29, 2025

1.1 years ago

9mo 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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Qwen2 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher EvalPlus score (79.0% vs 77.6%)

Higher MultiPL-E score (69.2% vs 65.9%)

Qwen3 235B A22B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (128,000 tokens)

Higher BBH score (88.9% vs 82.4%)

Higher GPQA score (47.5% vs 42.4%)

Higher GSM8k score (94.4% vs 91.1%)

Higher MATH score (71.8% vs 59.7%)

Higher MBPP score (81.4% vs 80.2%)

Higher MMLU score (87.8% vs 82.3%)

Higher MMLU-Pro score (68.2% vs 64.4%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature	Qwen2 72B Instruct	Qwen3 235B A22B

FAQ

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

Which is better, Qwen2 72B Instruct or Qwen3 235B A22B?

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

Qwen2 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 91.1%, CMMLU: 90.1%, HellaSwag: 87.6%, HumanEval: 86.0%, Winogrande: 85.1%. Qwen3 235B A22B scores Arena Hard: 95.6%, GSM8k: 94.4%, BBH: 88.9%, MMLU: 87.8%, MMLU-Redux: 87.4%.

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

Qwen2 72B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 235B A22B supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen2 72B Instruct and Qwen3 235B A22B?

Key differences include licensing (tongyi-qianwen vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.