Comprehensive side-by-side LLM comparison
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B leads with 3.4% higher average benchmark score. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is available on 9 providers. Both models have their strengths depending on your specific coding needs.
DeepSeek
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-1.5B was created through distillation into an ultra-compact Qwen architecture, designed to enable reasoning capabilities on resource-constrained devices. Built with just 1.5 billion parameters, it brings advanced analytical techniques to edge computing and mobile scenarios.
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B was developed as an efficient open-source model, designed to bring capable instruction-following to applications with limited computational resources. Built with 8 billion parameters, it provides a lightweight option for developers seeking reliable performance without the overhead of larger models.
6 months newer

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta
2024-07-23

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
DeepSeek
2025-01-20
Context window and performance specifications
Average performance across 1 common benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
2023-12-31
Available providers and their performance metrics

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Bedrock

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Cerebras
DeepInfra
Fireworks
Groq
Hyperbolic
Lambda
Sambanova
Together