Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Grok-4.1 ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Grok-4.1 Thinking — which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B (by DeepSeek) and Grok-4.1 Thinking (by xAI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Grok-4.1 Thinking if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinkingdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Grok-4.1 Thinking specifies output context (8,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
xAI
Grok-4.1 Thinking
Input256,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok-4.1 Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B does not.

Grok-4.1 Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Grok-4.1 Thinking 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-4.1 Thinking

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Grok-4.1 Thinking was released on 2025-11-17.

Grok-4.1 Thinking is 10 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.5 years ago

Grok-4.1 Thinking

Nov 17, 2025

8 months ago

10mo newer

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→

Key Takeaways

DeepSeek
Has open weights
xAI
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
Grok-4.1 Thinking
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
xAI
Grok-4.1 Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Grok-4.1 Thinking.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B (DeepSeek) and Grok-4.1 Thinking (xAI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B compare to Grok-4.1 Thinking in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Grok-4.1 Thinking scores Creative Writing v3: 86.1%, WMDP: 84.0%, EQ-Bench: 79.3%, ProtocolQA: 79.0%, LMArena Text Leaderboard: 74.2%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports an unknown number of tokens and Grok-4.1 Thinking supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Grok-4.1 Thinking is developed by xAI.

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