ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct vs Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B comes out ahead, 59 to 45 and 39 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. NVIDIA

    Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct

    Released Apr 15, 2025

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.478 / $0.504
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct

    Released Sep 2025

    39/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

    Released Apr 2025

    59/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $0.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B
01 — Verdict

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct (45) and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (39). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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 priceQwen3-VL 30B-A3BQwen3-VL 30B-A3B $0.35 · Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct $0.485 · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct $0.875 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct and Qwen3-VL 30B-A3BQwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 131,072 · Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B 131,072 · Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3-VL 30B-A3BLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct: Text · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct: Text · Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructQwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructQwen3-VL 30B-A3B
Price50%655372
Inputs & features30%252560
Context window20%242424
Overall100%45/10039/10059/100

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.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct vs Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructNVIDIAQwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-VL 30B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.478$0.50$0.20 (best)
Output$0.504 (best)$2.00$0.80
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.485$0.875$0.35 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens32,768 tokens (best)32,768 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDnvidia/llama-3.1-nemotron-70b-instructqwen3-next-80b-a3b-instructqwen3-vl-30b-a3b
API providers313 (best)1
ReleasedApr 15, 2025Sep 2025Apr 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025Apr 2025
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.

  • Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct$5.79
  • Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct$9.00
  • Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B$3.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct or Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct (45) and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (39). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct or Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.20 input / $0.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct costs $0.478 input / $0.504 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers; free on Nvidia); Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct costs $0.50 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.35 per million tokens for Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B versus $0.485 for Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct (1.4× as much) and $0.875 for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct has not been scored yet and Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct and Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct and Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct up to 8,192, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct up to 32,768, Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct accepts text; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct accepts text; Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B accepts text and images. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 2025. Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct came out Apr 15, 2025; Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct Apr 2025, Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B Apr 2025.

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

Related comparisons