Model Comparison

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct — which is better?

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 VL 32B 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-VL-72B-Instruct outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MVBench), while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is better at 6 benchmarks (DocVQAtest, InfoVQAtest, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, OCRBench, RealWorldQA). Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct if…

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

Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 7 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

7 benchmarks

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MVBench), while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is better at 6 benchmarks (DocVQAtest, InfoVQAtest, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, OCRBench, RealWorldQA).

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Jul 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

40.4B diff

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has 40.4B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct, making it 122.4% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
73.4Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct
33.0Bparameters
73.4B
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
33.0B
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct was released on 2024-08-29, while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is 13 months newer than Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Aug 29, 2024

1.9 years ago

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

10 months ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-06-30, while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct's training data extends to 2023-06-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct's cutoff date.

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

Jun 2023

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher MVBench score (73.6% vs 72.8%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher DocVQAtest score (96.9% vs 96.5%)
Higher InfoVQAtest score (87.0% vs 84.5%)
Higher MathVista-Mini score (83.8% vs 70.5%)
Higher MMMU-Pro score (65.3% vs 46.2%)
Higher OCRBench score (89.5% vs 87.7%)
Higher RealWorldQA score (79.0% vs 77.8%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct.

Which is better, Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct or Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 32B 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-VL-72B-Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct in benchmarks?

Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.5%, VCR_en_easy: 91.9%, ChartQA: 88.3%, OCRBench: 87.7%, MMBench: 86.5%. Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.9%, ScreenSpot: 95.8%, CharXiv-D: 90.5%, MMLU-Redux: 89.8%, AI2D: 89.5%.

What are the main differences between Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct?

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

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