Model Comparison
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B)Which is better in 2026?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is 6.8x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) — which is better?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) (by NVIDIA) 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.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B outperforms in 12 benchmarks (AA-LCR, BrowseComp, GPQA, HMMT 2025, Humanity's Last Exam, IFBench, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, Multi-Challenge, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0), while Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is better at 1 benchmark (WMT24++). Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is roughly 6.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 12 of 13 shared benchmarks
Choose Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) if…
- cost matters — it's about 6.8x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2026
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B outperforms in 12 benchmarks (AA-LCR, BrowseComp, GPQA, HMMT 2025, Humanity's Last Exam, IFBench, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, Multi-Challenge, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0), while Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is better at 1 benchmark (WMT24++).
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($0.60/1M tokens) is 6.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($3.60/1M tokens) is 7.2x more expensive than Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) ($0.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is more expensive than Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B).*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has 277.0B more parameters than Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B), making it 230.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 262,144 tokens. Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) does not.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B)
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) uses NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement .
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16, while Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) was released on 2026-03-11.
Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is 1 month newer than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Feb 16, 2026
3 months ago
Mar 11, 2026
3 months ago
3w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B)'s training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's cutoff date.
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Jun 2025
Provider Availability
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available from Novita. Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B) is available from DeepInfra.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B)
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Nemotron 3 Super (120B A12B).