Model Comparison

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 MaxWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Max across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 Max — which is better?

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 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.

Choose Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Qwen3 Max if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Maxdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

928.0B diff

Qwen3 Max has 928.0B more parameters than Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct, making it 1288.9% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
72.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max
1.0Tparameters
72.0B
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
1000.0B
Qwen3 Max

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 Max specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 Max specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max
Input256,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 Max does not.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 Max

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, while Qwen3 Max uses a proprietary license.

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

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

tongyi-qianwen

Open weights

Qwen3 Max

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct was released on 2025-01-26, while Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15.

Qwen3 Max is 11 months newer than Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

Jan 26, 2025

1.5 years ago

Qwen3 Max

Dec 15, 2025

7 months ago

10mo 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

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 Max

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (256,000 tokens)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 Max
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 Max.

Which is better, Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct (Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 Max (Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct compare to Qwen3 Max in benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct scores DocVQA: 96.4%, Android Control Low_EM: 93.7%, ChartQA: 89.5%, OCRBench: 88.5%, AI2D: 88.4%. Qwen3 Max scores AIME 2025: 81.6%, t2-bench: 74.8%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, LiveCodeBench v6: 69.0%, SuperGPQA: 65.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Max?

Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 Max supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Max?

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