Model Comparison
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Verdict: Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking — which is better?
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking (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 3 benchmarks (DocVQAtest, MVBench, OCRBench), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (InfoVQAtest, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, RealWorldQA). Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Choose Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct if…
- you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct outperforms in 3 benchmarks (DocVQAtest, MVBench, OCRBench), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (InfoVQAtest, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, RealWorldQA).
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has 40.4B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking, making it 122.4% larger.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
tongyi-qianwen
Open weights
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 Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is 13 months newer than Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct.
Aug 29, 2024
1.9 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
10 months ago
1.1yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-06-30, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking'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 Thinking's cutoff date.
Jun 2023
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.