DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Base
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Mistral Small 3 24B Base are closely matched at -2.7 and -0.3 on the LLM Stats Score.
DeepSeek · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Mistral Small 3 24B Base are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -2.7 and -0.3.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 3 24B Base wins 1; 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 9 for Mistral Small 3 24B Base
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Base is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Mistral Small 3 24B Base significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Small 3 24B Base has 21.8B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 1225.8% larger.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Small 3 24B Base supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B does not.
Mistral Small 3 24B Base can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Mistral Small 3 24B Base uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Mistral Small 3 24B Base was released on 2025-01-30.
Mistral Small 3 24B Base is 0 month newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
Jan 30, 2025
1.6 years ago
1w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Base has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Base's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.
—
Oct 2023
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Mistral Small 3 24B Base side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Base.