Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (Qwen) and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking (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 Next 80B A3B Thinking holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#116 vs #183); Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is 3× cheaper per output token ($0.40/1M vs $1.20/1M); Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking offers the longer context window (262K vs 33K tokens); and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking ships open weights.
Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.
Benchmark scores: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Public benchmark boards where Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking has a published result
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking: common questions
Is Qwen2.5 72B Instruct better than Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 22 September 2026: #116 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $0.40/1M against $1.20/1M. Input tokens are $0.36/1M for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and $0.15/1M for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking. 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 $0.90 for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs 2.2% 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 33K.
Which is better for coding, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Arena coding: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 1355, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 1422 — Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking leads.
Are Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking open-weight models?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Restricted license. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking: 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and 2 for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking, 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking 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.