# Benchmarking Distilled Language Models: Performance and Efficiency in Resource-Constrained Settings

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20164 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20164/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Knowledge distillation for LLMs, one of 12 directions in Knowledge distillation.
- Builds on 14 of its 23 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Jan 2026.

## Placed in

- Knowledge distillation / [Knowledge distillation for LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/distill/knowledge-distillation-for-llms/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [Qwen3 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09388/) (2025)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Qwen2.5 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15115/) (2024)
- [QLoRA: Efficient Finetuning of Quantized LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14314/) (2023)
- [Training Compute-Optimal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15556/) (2022)
- [GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12022/) (2023)
- [Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02243/) (2019)
- [On-Policy Distillation of Language Models: Learning from Self-Generated Mistakes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13649/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Knowledge Distillation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13116/) (2024)
- [The False Promise of Imitating Proprietary LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15717/) (2023)
- [The Carbon Footprint of Machine Learning Training Will Plateau, Then Shrink](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05149/) (2022)
- [The Ultimate Guide to Fine-Tuning LLMs from Basics to Breakthroughs: An Exhaustive Review of Technologies, Research, Best Practices, Applied Research Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.13296/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [The Reasoning Tax: Token Economics of LLM Reasoning Across Task Types and Deployment Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26235/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Knowledge distillation offers a transformative pathway to developing powerful, yet efficient, small language models (SLMs) suitable for resource-constrained environments. In this paper, we benchmark the performance and computational cost of distilled models against their vanilla and proprietary counterparts, providing a quantitative analysis of their efficiency. Our results demonstrate that distillation creates a superior performance-tocompute curve. We find that creating a distilled 8B model is over 2,000 times more compute-efficient than training its vanilla counterpart, while achieving reasoning capabilities on par with, or even exceeding, standard models ten times its size. These findings validate distillation not just as a compression technique, but as a primary strategy for building state-of-the-art, accessible AI