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DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs QwQ-32B

QwQ-32B leads the LLM Stats Score 14.8 to -3.0.

DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

QwQ-32B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 14.8 to -3.0, ranking #232 overall.

In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, QwQ-32B wins 4; 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 QwQ-32B

  • overall performance matters — it scores 14.8 and ranks #232 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Core performance indexes
-3.0
#342
14.8
#232
-2.6
#332
15.6
#222
-4.6
#259
10.3
#164
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 4
4 of 4
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
QwQ-32B
5.4#271
18.1#186
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 7 for QwQ-32B

4 shared

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while QwQ-32B is better at 4 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MATH-500).

QwQ-32B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Sep 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

30.7B diff

QwQ-32B has 30.7B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 1725.8% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QwQ-32B
32.5Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
32.5B
QwQ-32B

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while QwQ-32B uses Apache 2.0.

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

QwQ-32B

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 QwQ-32B was released on 2025-03-05.

QwQ-32B is 1 month newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.7 years ago

QwQ-32B

Mar 5, 2025

1.5 years ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

QwQ-32B has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-28, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm QwQ-32B's training data extends to 2024-11-28, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

QwQ-32B

Nov 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 QwQ-32B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
QwQ-32B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs QwQ-32B.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or QwQ-32B?

QwQ-32B leads the LLM Stats Score 14.8 to -3.0. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and QwQ-32B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. 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 QwQ-32B in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. QwQ-32B scores MATH-500: 90.6%, IFEval: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 79.5%, LiveBench: 73.1%, BFCL: 66.4%.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and QwQ-32B?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-3.0 vs 14.8), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and QwQ-32B?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and QwQ-32B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.