Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Qwen2.5 72B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 34.0 to 7.7, and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs 9.4x less per output token ($0.40 vs $3.75 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 36 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 36 shared
Gemini 3.6 Flash or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: which to pick
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a coding score, 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for output tokens 9.4x cheaper ($0.40 vs $3.75 per million).
Model AGemini 3.6 FlashGoogle62.5/1004 independent benchmarks$1.49 per solved taskModel BQwen2.5 72B InstructQwenNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 36
- Gemini 3.6 Flash only
- 73
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct only
- 17
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.6 Flash leads, 34.0 against 7.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a AA Agentic Index result, 29.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a GPQA Diamond result, 93.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a MMLU Pro result, 89.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a Design Arena: websites result, 1300.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 33K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Gemini 3.6 Flash $0.0026, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has the number, $1.49.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.6 Flash 62.5 from 4 benchmarks, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 52.4 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- OTIS Mock AIME: Gemini 3.6 Flash 94.2% against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, 86.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.6 Flash $3.75 against Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $0.40 per million output tokens, 9.4x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 33K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Bars | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 18 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 36 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| AA Coding Index | 69.2 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 88.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 79.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 64.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 30.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 35.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 73.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 45.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| SciCode | 53.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 4.5% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | 16.0% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| ALE-Bench | 715.5 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1491 | 1292 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1492 | 1292 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1528 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1547 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1545 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| SciCode | 10.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 34.0 | 7.7 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.5 | 129.0 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 29.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1197 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1181 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1199 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1203 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1181 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1148 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1146 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1034 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 56.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 18.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 25.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 65.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 58.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 34.5% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| METR time horizons | Not measured | 35.8% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 16.2% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| TheAgentCompany | Not measured | 5.7% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 93.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 88.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.8% | 49.1% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.8% | 3.6% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 94.1% | 49.1% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| ARC-AGI | 91.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 30.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| BIG-Bench Hard | Not measured | 79.8% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1486 | 1271 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1490 | 1245 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1484 | 1279 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1314 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1314 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 14.0 | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 94.2% | 8.1% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 58.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 22.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| ProofBench | 36.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 63.2% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1508 | 1283 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1492 | 1290 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 63.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 67.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 53.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 72.0% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MMLU | Not measured | 85.3% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| AI2 Reasoning Challenge | Not measured | 94.5% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1489 | 1275 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1469 | 1258 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1479 | 1288 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1464 | 1253 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1300 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1297 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1263 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1289 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1272 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1290 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1281 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index180
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 56.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 48.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 79.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 65.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 36.9% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| DTBench | 95.5% | 62.9% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMCA | 44.9% | 13.4% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| Furniture assembly | 23.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| HellaSwag | Not measured | 84.8% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| WinoGrande | Not measured | 82.3% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| PIQA | Not measured | 82.6% | Only Qwen2.5 72B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text | 1480 | 1269 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1467 | 1254 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1466 | 1221 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Vision | 1299 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1482 | 1283 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1470 | 1252 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1531 | 1273 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: German | 1480 | 1234 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1475 | 1180 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1429 | 1188 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: French | 1503 | 1280 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1476 | 1255 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1488 | 1264 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1473 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1481 | 1272 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1475 | 1281 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1470 | 1247 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1456 | 1211 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1295 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1357 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1312 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1289 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1278 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$0.0006Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.049Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$0.019Exceeds the context window
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.188Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$0.076Exceeds the context window
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | September 19, 2024 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 33K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.75 | $0.36 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.75 | $0.40 |
| Coding index | 62.5 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.49 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for coding?
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has a coding score, 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for output tokens 9.4x cheaper ($0.40 vs $3.75 per million).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?
Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $0.36 and $0.40. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.6 Flash only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Qwen2.5 72B Instruct?
Gemini 3.6 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct comparison based on?
36 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3.6 Flash's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.