Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Jamba 1.5 MiniWhich is better in 2026?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Jamba 1.5 Mini — which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B (by DeepSeek) and Jamba 1.5 Mini (by AI21 Labs) 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.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Jamba 1.5 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025

Choose Jamba 1.5 Mini if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.40/M output
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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

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

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jun 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

50.2B diff

Jamba 1.5 Mini has 50.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 2821.3% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
AI21 Labs
Jamba 1.5 Mini
52.0Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
52.0B
Jamba 1.5 Mini

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Jamba 1.5 Mini specifies input context (256,144 tokens). Only Jamba 1.5 Mini specifies output context (256,144 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
AI21 Labs
Jamba 1.5 Mini
Input256,144 tokens
Output256,144 tokens
Sun Jun 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Jamba 1.5 Mini uses Jamba Open Model 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

Jamba 1.5 Mini

Jamba Open Model License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Jamba 1.5 Mini was released on 2024-08-22.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is 5 months newer than Jamba 1.5 Mini.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.4 years ago

5mo newer
Jamba 1.5 Mini

Aug 22, 2024

1.8 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Jamba 1.5 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-03-05, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Jamba 1.5 Mini's training data extends to 2024-03-05, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

—

Jamba 1.5 Mini

Mar 2024

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

DeepSeek
Higher GPQA score (33.8% vs 32.3%)
AI21 Labs
Larger context window (256,144 tokens)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
AI21 Labs
Jamba 1.5 Mini

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Jamba 1.5 Mini.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Jamba 1.5 Mini?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Jamba 1.5 Mini is made by AI21 Labs. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B compare to Jamba 1.5 Mini in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Jamba 1.5 Mini scores ARC-C: 85.7%, GSM8k: 75.8%, MMLU: 69.7%, TruthfulQA: 54.1%, Arena Hard: 46.1%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Jamba 1.5 Mini?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports an unknown number of tokens and Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Jamba 1.5 Mini?

Key differences include licensing (MIT vs Jamba Open Model License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Jamba 1.5 Mini?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Jamba 1.5 Mini is developed by AI21 Labs.

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