DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B vs Qwen3 235B A22B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B and Qwen3 235B A22B are closely matched at 7.5 and 16.1 on the LLM Stats Score.
DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B and Qwen3 235B A22B are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 7.5 and 16.1.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 235B A22B wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B
- you are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B · 23 for Qwen3 235B A22B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, LiveCodeBench).
Qwen3 235B A22B shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 235B A22B has 227.0B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B, making it 2826.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 235B A22B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B was released on 2025-01-20, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 235B A22B is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.3 years ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B vs Qwen3 235B A22B.