Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
70/100- ECI145.1
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
68/100- ECI143.9
- Price$0.248 / $1.49
- Context262K
NVIDIANemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
62/100- ECI146.2
- Price$0.50 / $2.50
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B for raw capability, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BCapabilities Index (ECI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · 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 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3.6 35B-A3B and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 72 | 70 | 73 |
| Price | 25% | 53 | 62 | 50 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 90 | 45 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 37 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 68/100 | 62/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen) | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.1 | 143.9 | 146.2 (best) |
| ECI rank | #79 of 148 | #83 of 148 | #70 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 83.3% | 84.9% | 85.4% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 26.0% (best) | 20.4% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 71.1% | 86.7% (best) | 86.7% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.248 (best) | $0.50 |
| Output | $2.50 | $1.49 (best) | $2.50 |
| Cached input | $0.03 (best) | — | $0.15 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 | $0.557 (best) | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API | Official Nvidia API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| 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 | qwen3.6-35b-a3b | nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b |
| API providers | 26 | 34 (best) | 21 |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Apr 17, 2026 | Jun 4, 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
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B for raw capability, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price); 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 $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $0.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (1.5× as much) and $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (1.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 (#70 of 148), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.9–148.1 vs 142.5–146.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 85.4%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 83.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 86.7%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 71.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 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 Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the newest, released Jul 21, 2026. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B came out Jun 4, 2026; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B came out Apr 17, 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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