Model Comparison

Qwen2 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Verdict: Qwen2 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct — which is better?

Qwen2 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct (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 72B Instruct outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU-Pro). Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Choose Qwen2 72B Instruct if…

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Qwen2 72B Instruct outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU-Pro).

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Wed Jun 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

63.0B diff

Qwen2 72B Instruct has 63.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct, making it 700.0% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
72.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
9.0Bparameters
72.0B
Qwen2 72B Instruct
9.0B
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Wed Jun 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2 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 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen2 72B Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, 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.

Qwen2 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen2 72B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 14 months newer than Qwen2 72B Instruct.

Qwen2 72B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.9 years ago

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

8 months ago

1.2yr 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

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher MMLU score (82.3% vs 80.7%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (131,072 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher MMLU-Pro score (71.6% vs 64.4%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2 72B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen2 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Qwen2 72B Instruct or Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks. Qwen2 72B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 VL 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Qwen2 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 91.1%, CMMLU: 90.1%, HellaSwag: 87.6%, HumanEval: 86.0%, Winogrande: 85.1%. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.1%, ScreenSpot: 94.4%, OCRBench: 89.6%, AI2D: 85.7%, MMBench-V1.1: 85.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen2 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Qwen2 72B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct supports 131K 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 VL 8B Instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (tongyi-qianwen vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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