# Qwen Max vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

> Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.4 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen-max-vs-qwen2-5-32b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 3

## Summary

- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Max scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct in 1 category; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen2.5 32B Instruct leads 38.1 to 30.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is MATH Level 5: 67.2% for Qwen Max and 56.1% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 34.4 | 29.7 |
| Rank | 226 | 291 |
| Context | 33K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $1.60 | $0.70 |
| Output $/M | $6.40 | $2.80 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#288)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.1 (#165)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Aider Polyglot | 21.8% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45% |
| LMArena Coding | 1288 | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 52.3% |

## Reasoning

- Qwen Max: 24.1 (#154)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 18.5 (#262)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1270 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 128.52 |

## Math

- Qwen Max: 21.0 (#272)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 15.3 (#289)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.1% | 7.4% |
| MATH Level 5 | 67.2% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1275 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#222)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#259)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | 46.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen Max: 42.0 (#197)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1263 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1254 | — |
| LMArena French | 1329 | — |
| LMArena German | 1254 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1205 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1141 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1274 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1290 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen Max: 66.7 (#203)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1262 | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#175)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1289 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen Max: 48.0 (#200)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1248 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen Max better than Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.4 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Qwen Max or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better for coding?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.1 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct does, with 131K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7.