Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen3 VL 8B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking — which is better?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 (by NVIDIA) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, IFEval). Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 if…

  • you are already invested in the NVIDIA ecosystem

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, IFEval).

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

1.0B diff

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking has 1.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1, making it 12.5% larger.

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
8.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
9.0Bparameters
8.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
9.0B
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Sat Jun 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 does not.

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 was released on 2025-03-18, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 6 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Mar 18, 2025

1.3 years ago

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

9 months ago

6mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking's cutoff date.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Dec 2023

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

NVIDIA

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2025 score (80.3% vs 47.1%)
Higher GPQA score (69.9% vs 54.1%)
Higher IFEval score (83.2% vs 79.3%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is made by NVIDIA and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 compare to Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 scores MATH-500: 95.4%, MBPP: 84.6%, MT-Bench: 81.0%, IFEval: 79.3%, BFCL v2: 63.6%. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 95.3%, ScreenSpot: 93.6%, MMLU-Redux: 88.8%, MMBench-V1.1: 87.5%, InfoVQAtest: 86.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is developed by NVIDIA and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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