QwQ Plus vs DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B
QwQ Plus comes out ahead, 54 to 48 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)QwQ Plus
54/100- ECI—
- Price$0.80 / $2.40
- Context131K
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B
48/100- ECI137.4
- Price—
- Context131K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
QwQ Plus is our pick
QwQ Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 54/100 against DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B (48). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityQwQ PlusShared benchmarks: QwQ Plus 65.4% · DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B 64.1%
- Lowest priceQwQ PlusQwQ Plus $1.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B unpriced
- Longest contextAbout the sameQwQ Plus 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwQ Plus: Text · DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | QwQ Plus | DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 67% | 65 | 64 |
| Inputs & features | 20% | 35 | 10 |
| Context window | 13% | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 54/100 | 48/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | QwQ PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32BDeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 137.4 |
| ECI rank | — | #110 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 65.4% (best) | 64.1% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 55.6% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.80 | — |
| Output | $2.40 | — |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.20 | — |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | — |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | — |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwq-plus | — |
| API providers | 2 | — |
| Released | Mar 5, 2025 | Jan 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- QwQ Plus$12.80
- DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B—
Which should you choose?
Which is better: QwQ Plus or DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
QwQ Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 54/100 against DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B (48). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, QwQ Plus or DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
QwQ Plus is cheaper at $0.80 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). . At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.20 per million tokens for QwQ Plus versus . DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): QwQ Plus 65.4% and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B 64.1%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — QwQ Plus 65.4%, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B 64.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for QwQ Plus and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, QwQ Plus leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
QwQ Plus and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: QwQ Plus up to 8,192, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
QwQ Plus accepts text; DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; QwQ Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
QwQ Plus is the newest, released Mar 5, 2025. DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: QwQ Plus Apr 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
Related comparisons
- Add GPT-4.1 miniThree-way comparison
- QwQ Plus vs GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI · ECI 135.0
- QwQ Plus vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta · ECI 132.2
- QwQ Plus vs Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI · ECI 134.1
- DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B vs QwQ 32BAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 137.6
- DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B vs GPT-4.1OpenAI · ECI 136.8
- DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B vs Gemini 2.0 FlashGoogle · ECI 134.7
