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ModelCap

Head-to-head comparison

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (Qwen) and Qwen3.5-122B-A10B (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 22 September 2026

As of 22 September 2026, Qwen3.5-122B-A10B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#73 vs #183); Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 5.2× cheaper per output token ($0.40/1M vs $2.08/1M); Qwen3.5-122B-A10B offers the longer context window (262K vs 33K tokens); and Qwen3.5-122B-A10B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen2.5 72B Instruct if…

  • API cost matters — $0.40/1M output tokens against $2.08/1M, about 5.2× cheaper.

Choose Qwen3.5-122B-A10B if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #73 against #183 (60.8 vs 26.0 points).
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.26/1M against $0.36/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 33K.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3.5-122B-A10B ships open weights while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is restricted license.
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 2.
  • Arena coding is your yardstick — 1459 against 1355.
  • AA τ²-Bench Telecom is your yardstick — 93.6% against 34.5%.
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 25.2% against 3.6%.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Qwen3.5-122B-A10B was listed 25 February 2026, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 19 September 2024.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
FieldQwen2.5 72B InstructQwenQwen3.5-122B-A10BQwen
ModelCap Index position#183#73
Index score26.060.8
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.36$0.26
Output price / 1M tokens$0.40$2.08
Context window33K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens16K66K
API providers listed25
Weight accessRestricted licenseOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText, Image, Video
First listed19 September 202425 February 2026
PublisherQwenQwen

Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B

Public benchmark boards where Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5-122B-A10B has a published result
BoardQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen3.5-122B-A10BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)13551348–136314591452–1466Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis—15.6intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecifiedOnly one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis34.5%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen2.5 Instruct 72B":reasoning=false93.6%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning)":reasoning=trueQwen3.5-122B-A10B
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis3.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Qwen2.5 Instruct 72B":reasoning=false25.2%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning)":reasoning=trueQwen3.5-122B-A10B

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B: common questions

Is Qwen2.5 72B Instruct better than Qwen3.5-122B-A10B?

Qwen3.5-122B-A10B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 22 September 2026: #73 against #183. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals do not overlap, but the aggregate Index does not predict performance on every task; compare the relevant benchmark configurations before choosing.

Is Qwen2.5 72B Instruct cheaper than Qwen3.5-122B-A10B?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $0.40/1M against $2.08/1M. Input tokens are $0.36/1M for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and $0.26/1M for Qwen3.5-122B-A10B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $0.92 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct versus $1.56 for Qwen3.5-122B-A10B. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs 41.0% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5-122B-A10B?

Qwen3.5-122B-A10B has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 33K.

Which is better for coding, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3.5-122B-A10B?

Arena coding: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 1355, Qwen3.5-122B-A10B 1459 — Qwen3.5-122B-A10B leads.

Are Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3.5-122B-A10B open-weight models?

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Restricted license. Qwen3.5-122B-A10B: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3.5-122B-A10B?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and 5 for Qwen3.5-122B-A10B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 22 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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