Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3.8 27B
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite comes out ahead, 70 to 67 and 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
70/100- ECI145.1
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
NVIDIANemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
62/100- ECI146.2
- Price$0.50 / $2.50
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 27B
67/100- ECI149.4
- Price$0.40 / $2.50
- Context262K
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is our pick
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.8 27B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.8 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1
- Lowest priceGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and Qwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 72 | 73 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 53 | 50 | 51 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 45 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 60 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 62/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIA | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.1 | 146.2 | 149.4 (best) |
| ECI rank | #79 of 148 | #70 of 148 | #53 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 83.3% | 85.4% (best) | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 26.0% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 71.1% | 86.7% (best) | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $0.50 | $0.40 |
| Output | $2.50 | $2.50 | $2.50 |
| Cached input | $0.03 (best) | $0.15 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 (best) | $1.00 | $0.925 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Nvidia API | Median of 39 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-3.5-flash-lite | nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b | — |
| API providers | 26 | 21 | 41 (best) |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jun 4, 2026 | Aug 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
- Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.8 27B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers); Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B costs $0.50 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Nvidia API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite versus $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.1× as much) and $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148), Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 (#70 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–151.6 vs 143.9–148.1), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and Qwen3.8 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 27B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite came out Jul 21, 2026; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B came out Jun 4, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Mar 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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