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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 -3.5 and -3.1 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 -3.5 and -3.1.

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
-3.5
#368
-3.1
#367
Reasoning
-3.1
#359
-2.7
#357
Coding
-4.7
#284
-1.0
#271
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
5.3#284
4.9#289
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.

Mon Oct 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

1.8 years ago

9mo newer
Grok-1.5

Mar 28, 2024

2.6 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?

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 -3.5 and -3.1. 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 (-3.5 vs -3.1), 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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