Model comparison

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct vs Qwen3.5 Plus

Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct Alibaba (Qwen)

30.1

Rank #297 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 Plus Alibaba (Qwen)

42.9

Rank #106 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Plus in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.5 Plus leads 49.6 to 16.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 7.4% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and 86.7% for Qwen3.5 Plus.
  • Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $2.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.
  • Qwen3.5 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and Qwen3.5 Plus specifications
Qwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index30.142.9
Released2024-092026-02-16
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K1M
Max output8K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.70$0.40
Output $ / M tokens$2.80$2.40
Results tracked715

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Category by category

Coding Not comparable

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.7 (#169), Qwen3.5 Plus: —

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
BigCodeBench Instruct45%—
BigCodeBench Complete52.3%—
ALE-Bench—621.92

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.5 Plus: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
Vending-Bench 2—0.54

Reasoning Qwen3.5 Plus leads

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 19.2 (#266), Qwen3.5 Plus: 32.8 (#74)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
Chess Puzzles0%22%
Epoch Capabilities Index128.52146.78
Mystery Game Puzzles—17%
DTBench—80.5%
LMCA—36.4%

Math Qwen3.5 Plus leads

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 16.2 (#296), Qwen3.5 Plus: 49.6 (#61)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20257.4%86.7%
MATH Level 556.1%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—21%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—2.1%

Knowledge Qwen3.5 Plus leads

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#266), Qwen3.5 Plus: 46.0 (#83)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
GPQA Diamond46.1%84.8%
SimpleQA Verified—25.4%
Vectara Hallucination Rate—10.7%

Long Context Not comparable

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.5 Plus: 43.0 (#113)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen2.5 32B InstructQwen3.5 Plus
CL-bench—19.8%
CL-bench Life—12.4%

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better than Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Qwen2.5 32B Instruct lists at $0.70 and $2.80.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and Qwen3.5 Plus share?

4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Plus has 15.

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