Model Comparison
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Verdict: Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking — which is better?
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (by NVIDIA) and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 Ultra 253B v1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025). Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 3 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025).
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has 222.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking, making it 716.1% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 6 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.
Apr 7, 2025
1.2 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
9 months ago
5mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-01, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1's training data extends to 2023-12-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's cutoff date.
Dec 2023
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.