DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct are closely matched at -2.7 and 2.0 on the LLM Stats Score.
DeepSeek · Microsoft · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -2.7 and 2.0.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct 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 want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
Choose Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
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 · 31 for Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct has 58.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 3270.8% larger.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under MIT.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
MIT
Open weights
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is 5 months newer than Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
5mo newerAug 23, 2024
2.0 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct.