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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 4 31B IT vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 71, Gemma 4 31B IT 70). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemma 4 31B IT

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI142.8
    • Price$0.14 / $0.40
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 4 31B IT

  2. NVIDIA

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B

    Released Aug 11, 2026

    71/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B

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    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 71/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B $0.087 · Gemma 4 31B IT $0.205 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameGemma 4 31B IT 262,144 · Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 4 31B ITGemma 4 31B IT: Text, Images · Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 4 31B ITNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
Price50%83100
Inputs & features30%7045
Context window20%3737
Overall100%70/10071/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemma 4 31B IT vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 4 31B ITGoogleNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNVIDIA
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.8—
ECI rank#86 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions75.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions10.4%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.14$0.05 (best)
Output$0.40$0.20 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.205$0.087 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 30 providersMedian of 9 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDgemma-4-31b-itnvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b
API providers38 (best)12
ReleasedApr 2, 2026Aug 11, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemma 4 31B IT$2.20
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B$0.90
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 4 31B IT or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 71/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 31B IT or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers; free on Nvidia). Gemma 4 31B IT costs $0.14 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 30 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.087 per million tokens for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B versus $0.205 for Gemma 4 31B IT (2.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Gemma 4 31B IT has an ECI of 142.8 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 4 31B IT and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 4 31B IT and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Gemma 4 31B IT up to 32,768, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 4 31B IT accepts text and images; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B accepts text. Gemma 4 31B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is the newest, released Aug 11, 2026. Gemma 4 31B IT came out Apr 2, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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