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DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched at -3.0 and 2.8 on the LLM Stats Score.

DeepSeek · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -3.0 and 2.8.

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 Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
DeepSeek
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Microsoft
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-3.0
#342
2.8
#312
Reasoning
-2.6
#332
-0.2
#320
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 15 for Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

No common benchmarks found

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

3.8B diff

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has 3.8B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 214.6% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
5.6Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
5.6B
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Phi-4-multimodal-instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Microsoft
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B does not.

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

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-multimodal-instruct

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-multimodal-instruct was released on 2025-02-01.

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is 0 month newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.7 years ago

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Feb 1, 2025

1.6 years ago

1w newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Phi-4-multimodal-instruct's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

—

Phi-4-multimodal-instruct

Jun 2024

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 Phi-4-multimodal-instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
Phi-4-multimodal-instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Phi-4-multimodal-instruct.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at -3.0 and 2.8. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is made by Microsoft. 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 Phi-4-multimodal-instruct in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Phi-4-multimodal-instruct scores ScienceQA Visual: 97.5%, DocVQA: 93.2%, MMBench: 86.7%, POPE: 85.6%, OCRBench: 84.4%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports an unknown number of tokens and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct supports 128K 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 Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-3.0 vs 2.8), multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Phi-4-multimodal-instruct is developed by Microsoft.

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