Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

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

Sun May 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

6.2B diff

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has 6.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 349.4% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
8.0Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
8.0B
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Sun May 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community 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

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is 6 months newer than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.3 years ago

6mo newer
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.8 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 8B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Key Takeaways

Higher GPQA score (33.8% vs 30.4%)
Larger context window (131,072 tokens)

Detailed Comparison

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is made by Meta. 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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores GSM-8K (CoT): 84.5%, ARC-C: 83.4%, API-Bank: 82.6%, IFEval: 80.4%, BFCL: 76.1%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports an unknown number of tokens and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131K 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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (MIT vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is developed by Meta.