Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs o1Which is better in 2026?

o1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs o1 — which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B (by DeepSeek) and o1 (by OpenAI) 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 o1 is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA). o1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose o1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while o1 is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA).

o1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only o1 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o1 specifies output context (100,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
OpenAI
o1
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while o1 uses a proprietary 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

o1

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while o1 was released on 2024-12-17.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is 1 month newer than o1.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.5 years ago

1mo newer
o1

Dec 17, 2024

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

DeepSeek
Has open weights
OpenAI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Higher AIME 2024 score (74.3% vs 52.7%)
Higher GPQA score (78.0% vs 33.8%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and o1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
o1
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
OpenAI
o1

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs o1.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or o1?

o1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and o1 is made by OpenAI. 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 o1 in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. o1 scores GSM8k: 97.1%, MATH: 96.4%, GPQA Physics: 92.8%, MMLU: 91.8%, MGSM: 89.3%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and o1?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports an unknown number of tokens and o1 supports 200K 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 o1?

Key differences include licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and o1?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and o1 is developed by OpenAI.

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