DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Phi 4 Mini Reasoning Comparison

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Phi 4 Mini Reasoning is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH-500).

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Mar 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Cost data unavailable.

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Mar 15 2026 • llm-stats.com
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input tokens$0.00
Output tokens$0.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
Input tokens$0.00
Output tokens$0.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
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Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2.0B diff

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning has 2.0B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 113.5% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning
3.8Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
3.8B
Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under MIT.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

MIT

Open weights

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Phi 4 Mini Reasoning was released on 2025-04-30.

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.1 years ago

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

Apr 30, 2025

10 months ago

3mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-02-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi 4 Mini Reasoning's training data extends to 2025-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Phi 4 Mini Reasoning

Feb 2025

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Higher GPQA score (52.0% vs 33.8%)
Higher MATH-500 score (94.6% vs 83.9%)

Detailed Comparison