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DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Grok-1.5

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5 are closely matched at -3.0 and -2.6 on the LLM Stats Score.

DeepSeek · xAI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -3.0 and -2.6.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Grok-1.5 wins 1; 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 Qwen 1.5B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Grok-1.5

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
DeepSeek
Grok-1.5
xAI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-3.0
#348
-2.6
#346
Reasoning
-2.6
#338
-2.2
#336
Coding
-4.6
#265
-0.9
#252
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
—
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Grok-1.5
Math
5.4#272
4.9#277
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 9 for Grok-1.5

1 shared

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Grok-1.5 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Grok-1.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Sep 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Grok-1.5 uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

MIT

Open weights

Grok-1.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Grok-1.5 was released on 2024-03-28.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is 10 months newer than Grok-1.5.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.7 years ago

9mo newer
Grok-1.5

Mar 28, 2024

2.5 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
Grok-1.5
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Grok-1.5.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Grok-1.5?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5 are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at -3.0 and -2.6. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Grok-1.5 is made by xAI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B compare to Grok-1.5 in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Grok-1.5 scores GSM8k: 90.0%, DocVQA: 85.6%, MMLU: 81.3%, HumanEval: 74.1%, MMMU: 53.6%.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-3.0 vs -2.6), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-1.5?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Grok-1.5 is developed by xAI.

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