Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1Which is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 — which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B (by DeepSeek) and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 (by NVIDIA) 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 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH-500). Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B if…

  • you are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH-500).

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Jun 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

6.2B diff

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
8.0Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
8.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 was released on 2025-03-18.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is 2 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.4 years ago

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Mar 18, 2025

1.2 years ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1'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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

DeepSeek

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

NVIDIA
Higher GPQA score (54.1% vs 33.8%)
Higher MATH-500 score (95.4% vs 83.9%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is made by NVIDIA. 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 scores MATH-500: 95.4%, MBPP: 84.6%, MT-Bench: 81.0%, IFEval: 79.3%, BFCL v2: 63.6%.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1?

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 Nemotron Nano 8B V1?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is developed by NVIDIA.

Related comparisons