Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct (2025) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Alibaba. Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct ships a 32k-token context window, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ships a 262k-token context window. On Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B leads by 20.5 pts. On pricing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M input tokens versus $0.90/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is ~131% cheaper at $0.39/1M; pay for Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct only for vision-heavy evaluation.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | multimodal apps | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents |
| Decision fit | Vision | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 32k | 262k |
| Cheapest output | $0.90/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 4 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 1 shared | Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding leader |
Decision tradeoffs
- Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.90/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct for Vision.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B holds a shared-benchmark lead on Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding, ahead by 20.5 points.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B uniquely exposes Reasoning, JSON / Tool use, and Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3.5-397B-A17B for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct
$945
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
$897
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $48.00. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is $1.44/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B adds Reasoning, JSON / Tool use, and Structured outputs in local capability data.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct is $1.44/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Reasoning, JSON / Tool use, and Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-01-01 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | 32k | 262k |
| Parameters | 72B | 397B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | Apache 2.0OSI-approved | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Unknown | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-06 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.90/1M tokens | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.90/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | No | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Qwen2-VL-72B-Instruct | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding | 64.5 | 85.0 |
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.