DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Qwen3 30B A3B leads the LLM Stats Score 17.7 to -2.7.
DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 30B A3B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 17.7 to -2.7, ranking #200 overall.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 30B A3B wins 3; 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 Qwen3 30B A3B
- overall performance matters — it scores 17.7 and ranks #200 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 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 · 8 for Qwen3 30B A3B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 30B A3B is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA, LiveCodeBench).
Qwen3 30B A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 30B A3B has 28.7B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 1613.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 30B A3B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 30B A3B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 30B A3B 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 Qwen3 30B A3B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 30B A3B is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.3 years ago
3mo newerKnowledge 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 Qwen3 30B A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 30B A3B.