AllocateDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B GPU requirements
What it takes to run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B locally: memory by quantization, the smallest GPU that fits, and the managed alternative.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B serves up to 131,072 tokens of context; the KV cache grows linearly toward that ceiling, so the slider below shows exactly what longer context costs in memory.
Smallest single device that fits: RTX 4090 (24 GB)
How it works
Common questions
How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B need?
At 8K context: roughly 4 GB at FP16, 2 GB at 8-bit, and 1 GB at 4-bit, including KV cache and runtime overhead. Longer context adds memory linearly.
Can a single GPU run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B?
At 4-bit, yes: a RTX 4090 (24 GB) or larger handles it at 8K context. At FP16 you need a RTX 4090 (24 GB) or larger.
Does quantization hurt DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's quality?
Modern 4-bit quantization costs a small amount of quality for a 4x memory saving; 8-bit is near-lossless. Validate on your own tasks before production.
What license is DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B under?
MIT. Permissive: run it, fine-tune it, and own the result.
Is there an alternative to buying GPUs for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B?
Yes: managed inference. Allocate serves DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B token-metered from $0.18 per million input tokens at provider list price, plus the 7% transaction fee. Idle time costs nothing.
More free tools
Allocate serves open-weight models like DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B token-metered inside your own boundary. No hardware to buy, and if you fine-tune on your data, the weights are yours.