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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

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. 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

  2. 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

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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 sameNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 262,144 · Gemma 4 31B IT 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 4 31B ITNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: Text · Gemma 4 31B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BGemma 4 31B IT
Price50%10083
Inputs & features30%4570
Context window20%3737
Overall100%71/10070/100

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.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs Gemma 4 31B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNVIDIAGemma 4 31B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—142.8
ECI rank—#86 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—75.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—10.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.14
Output$0.20 (best)$0.40
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.087 (best)$0.205
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 30 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDnvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3bgemma-4-31b-it
API providers1238 (best)
ReleasedAug 11, 2026Apr 2, 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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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

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. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has not been scored yet and Gemma 4 31B IT has an ECI of 142.8.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B and Gemma 4 31B IT 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?

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

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B accepts text; Gemma 4 31B IT accepts text and images. 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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