DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview are closely matched at -2.9 and -5.4 on the LLM Stats Score.
DeepSeek · IBM · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -2.9 and -5.4.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
- you are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem
Choose IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped May 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 Qwen 1.5B · 12 for IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Previewdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview has 5.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 293.3% larger.
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview 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 Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview was released on 2025-05-02.
IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
May 2, 2025
1.4 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 Qwen 1.5B and IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview.