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Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct are closely matched at 22.1 and 24.7 on the LLM Stats Score. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 3.4x cheaper per token.

NVIDIA · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 22.1 and 24.7.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is roughly 3.4x 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)

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • cost matters — it's about 3.4x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.88/M output

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
NVIDIA
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
22.1
#181
24.7
#165
Reasoning
19.6
#200
22.5
#173
Agents
6.8
#143
12.6
#103
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$0.08 / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
$0.20 / M
$0.88 / M
Context window
262,144
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Math
17.9#189
23.8#124
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) · 50 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

1 shared

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Sep 22 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 Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.20/1M tokens) is 4.4x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.88/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input tokens$0.08
Output tokens$0.20
Best providerDeepinfra
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$0.88
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

206.0B diff

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has 206.0B more parameters than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B), making it 686.7% larger.

NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
30.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
236.0Bparameters
30.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
236.0B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

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
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is licensed under OpenMDW License v1.1, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 11 months newer than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Aug 11, 2026

1 months ago

10mo newer
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

1.0 years ago

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. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

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

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.88/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

Which is better, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 22.1 and 24.7. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is made by NVIDIA and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. 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 Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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%. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 97.1%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, MMLU-Redux: 92.2%, OCRBench: 92.0%, MMBench-V1.1: 89.9%.

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

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. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.20/M input and $0.88/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports 262K tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (22.1 vs 24.7), input pricing ($0.08 vs $0.20/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (OpenMDW License v1.1 vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is developed by NVIDIA and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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