Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct costs 2.3x less per output token than Qwen3.5 397B A17B ($1.00 vs $2.34 per million). Updated October 23, 2026; 3 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct for output tokens 2.3x cheaper ($1.00 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by LMArena Vision or LMArena Vision: English, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 3
- Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct only
- 3
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B only
- 63
- Like-for-like categories
- 1 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
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B has a AA Intelligence Index result, 21.4.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B has a Design Arena: websites result, 1190.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B takes 262K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct $0.0013, Qwen3.5 397B A17B $0.0016 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct not benchmarked, Qwen3.5 397B A17B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 28.6 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Vision: Chinese: Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct 1107 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B 1314, 34.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct $1.00 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B $2.34 per million output tokens, 2.3x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct takes 128K tokens, Qwen3.5 397B A17B 262K.
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 | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Bars | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | 0 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 3 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1400 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 44.8% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 621.9 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1465 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1463 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1388 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1409 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 21.4 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.8 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 95.6% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 24.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| OSWorld | 5.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.3% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 86.4% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1450 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1277 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1292 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 36.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 31.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 19.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeoBench | 62.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1457 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1190 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1161 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1140 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1175 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1162 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1179 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1139 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 78.8% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 77.3% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1438 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1423 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1402 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1107 | 1262 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1443 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1499 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1444 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1385 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1447 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1416 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1399 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1115 | 1268 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1107 | 1314 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1271 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1265 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1260 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | 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
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B 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 | Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | February 1, 2025 | February 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.80 | $0.39 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.00 | $2.34 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct for output tokens 2.3x cheaper ($1.00 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by LMArena Vision or LMArena Vision: English, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct costs $0.80 per million input tokens and $1.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.39 and $2.34. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Qwen3.5 397B A17B, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison based on?
3 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 23, 2026. Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.5 397B A17B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.