Model comparison
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 16.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 7.4% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and 100% for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Qwen3.8 Max 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 | Qwen3.8 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.1 | 56.8 |
| Released | 2024-09 | 2026-08-02 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 8K | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.70 | $2 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.80 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 7 | 39 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.8 Max leads
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.7 (#169), Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1502 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 52.3% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |
Reasoning Qwen3.8 Max leads
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 19.2 (#266), Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 40% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 128.52 | 156.41 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1496 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
Math Qwen3.8 Max leads
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 16.2 (#296), Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.4% | 100% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1499 |
| MATH Level 5 | 56.1% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.8 Max leads
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#266), Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 46.1% | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1507 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1538 |
| LMArena French | — | 1503 |
| LMArena German | — | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1461 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1481 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1492 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1479 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1489 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)
| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1489 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better than Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 32B Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.
Is Qwen2.5 32B Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?
Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 38.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 Max does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen2.5 32B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max share?
4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.