Model Comparison
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct — which is better?
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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.
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is better at 15 benchmarks (AI2D, AndroidWorld_SR, CC-OCR, Hallusion Bench, LVBench, MathVision, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, MMStar, OCRBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OSWorld, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, VideoMME w/o sub.). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct if…
- you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 15 of 15 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is better at 15 benchmarks (AI2D, AndroidWorld_SR, CC-OCR, Hallusion Bench, LVBench, MathVision, MathVista-Mini, MMMU-Pro, MMStar, OCRBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OSWorld, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, VideoMME w/o sub.).
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has 164.0B more parameters than Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct, making it 227.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct is licensed under tongyi-qianwen, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct was released on 2025-01-26, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 8 months newer than Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct.
Jan 26, 2025
1.5 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
10 months ago
7mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.