Skip to content
ModelCap

Head-to-head comparison

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 30B A3B

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA) and Qwen3 30B A3B (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 15 September 2026

As of 15 September 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#103 vs #160); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 2.5× cheaper per output token ($0.20/1M vs $0.50/1M); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning offers the longer context window (262K vs 131K tokens); and Qwen3 30B A3B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #103 against #160 (43.4 vs 28.2 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.20/1M output tokens against $0.50/1M, about 2.5× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.08/1M against $0.12/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 131K.
  • you want provider choice — 4 listed API providers against 2.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was listed 11 August 2026, Qwen3 30B A3B 28 April 2025.

Choose Qwen3 30B A3B if…

  • you want to self-host: Qwen3 30B A3B ships open weights while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is restricted license.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 30B A3B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3 30B A3B
FieldNemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIAQwen3 30B A3BQwen
ModelCap Index position#103#160
Index score43.428.2
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.08$0.12
Output price / 1M tokens$0.20$0.50
Context window262K tokens131K tokens
Max output tokens131K16K
API providers listed42
Weight accessRestricted licenseOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText
First listed11 August 202628 April 2025
PublisherNVIDIAQwen

Evidence: 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 30B A3B

Public benchmark boards where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3 30B A3B has a published result
BoardNemotron 3.5 LightningQwen3 30B A3BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—13861377–1395Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis13.6intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecified—Only one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis10.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Nemotron 3.5 Lightning":reasoning=true—Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 30B A3B: common questions

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen3 30B A3B?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 15 September 2026: #103 against #160. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cheaper than Qwen3 30B A3B?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper on output tokens: $0.20/1M against $0.50/1M. Input tokens are $0.08/1M for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and $0.12/1M for Qwen3 30B A3B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $0.26 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning versus $0.49 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 46.9% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3 30B A3B?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 131K.

Which is better for coding, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3 30B A3B?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3 30B A3B open-weight models?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Restricted license. Qwen3 30B A3B: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3 30B A3B?

ModelCap currently lists 4 API providers for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and 2 for Qwen3 30B A3B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 30B A3B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 15 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

Explore further