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Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) leads the LLM Stats Score 35.0 to 22.1. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 3.6x cheaper per token.

NVIDIA · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) leads the overall LLM Stats Score 35.0 to 22.1, ranking #108 overall.

In the 11 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) wins 10; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is roughly 3.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

  • cost matters — it's about 3.6x cheaper per token

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

  • overall performance matters — it scores 35.0 and ranks #108 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 10 of 11 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
NVIDIA
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
22.1
#200
35.0
#108
Reasoning
20.0
#212
36.2
#94
Coding
7.4
#205
21.0
#108
Agents
5.9
#163
16.5
#99
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 11
10 of 11
Input price
$0.08 / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
$0.20 / M
$1.00 / M
Context window
262,144
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
Math
17.2#205
28.1#101
Tool use
-0.7#202
11.0#133
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) · 19 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

11 shared

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) outperforms in 1 benchmarks (IFBench), while Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) is better at 10 benchmarks (AA-LCR, BrowseComp, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, OmniScience, SciCode, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Verified, Tau3 Banking, Terminal-Bench 2.1).

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs less

For input processing, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.08/1M tokens) is 2.5x cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.20/1M tokens) is 5.0x cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) ($1.00/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) is more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input tokens$0.08
Output tokens$0.20
Best providerDeepinfra
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$1.00
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

90.0B diff

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) has 90.0B more parameters than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B), making it 300.0% larger.

NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
30.0Bparameters
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
120.0Bparameters
30.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
120.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Both models have the same input context window of 262,144 tokens. Both models can generate responses up to 262,144 tokens.

NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under OpenMDW License v1.1.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11, while Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) was released on 2026-10-15.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) is 2 months newer than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Aug 11, 2026

2 months ago

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

Oct 15, 2026

4 days ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is available from DeepInfra. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) is available from DeepInfra.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.08/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B).

Which is better, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) leads the LLM Stats Score 35.0 to 22.1. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is made by NVIDIA and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) compare to Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) in benchmarks?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) scores PinchBench: 85.4%, MMLU-Pro: 81.9%, GPQA: 75.4%, IFBench: 71.9%, AA-LCR: 52.0%. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) scores GPQA: 89.5%, LiveCodeBench v6: 88.2%, CharXiv-R: 80.8%, MathVision: 78.2%, BrowseComp: 78.0%.

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 2.5x cheaper for input tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.08/M input and $0.20/M output via deepinfra. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) costs $0.20/M input and $1.00/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports 262K tokens and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B) 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 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B A12B)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (22.1 vs 35.0), input pricing ($0.08 vs $0.20/M), multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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