The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 leads the LLM Stats Score 19.4 to -2.7.

DeepSeek · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 19.4 to -2.7, ranking #190 overall.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 wins 3; 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 are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

  • overall performance matters — it scores 19.4 and ranks #190 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
DeepSeek
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
NVIDIA
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-2.7
#325
19.4
#190
Reasoning
-2.4
#315
19.1
#189
Coding
-4.5
#245
12.6
#134
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 3
3 of 3
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
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Math
5.7#260
15.7#205
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 6 for Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

3 shared

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MATH-500).

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

251.2B diff

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has 251.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 14113.5% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
253.0Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
253.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B 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 Ultra 253B 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 Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.6 years ago

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Apr 7, 2025

1.4 years ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1's training data extends to 2023-12-01, 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 Ultra 253B v1

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 leads the LLM Stats Score 19.4 to -2.7. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is made by NVIDIA. 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 Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B 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 Ultra 253B v1 scores MATH-500: 97.0%, IFEval: 89.5%, GPQA: 76.0%, BFCL v2: 74.1%, AIME 2025: 72.5%.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-2.7 vs 19.4), 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 Ultra 253B v1?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA.

Related comparisons