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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs Qwen3.8 Max Preview

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B comes out ahead, 71 to 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max Preview

    Released Jul 19, 2026

    47/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max Preview

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is our pick

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Qwen3.8 Max Preview (47). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 Max Preview wins on inputs & features and context window. 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 · Qwen3.8 Max Preview $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.8 Max PreviewQwen3.8 Max Preview 1,000,000 · Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 Max PreviewNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: Text · Qwen3.8 Max Preview: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BQwen3.8 Max Preview
Price50%10027
Inputs & features30%4570
Context window20%3760
Overall100%71/10047/100

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 Qwen3.8 Max Preview specifications side by side
SpecificationNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNVIDIAQwen3.8 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$2.00
Output$0.20 (best)$6.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.087 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDnvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b—
API providers12 (best)6
ReleasedAug 11, 2026Jul 19, 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
  • Qwen3.8 Max Preview$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max Preview?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Qwen3.8 Max Preview (47). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 Max Preview wins on inputs & features and context window. 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 Qwen3.8 Max Preview?

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). Qwen3.8 Max Preview costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 6 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 $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max Preview (34× 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 Qwen3.8 Max Preview has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B and Qwen3.8 Max Preview 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?

Qwen3.8 Max Preview has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B up to 262,144, Qwen3.8 Max Preview up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B accepts text; Qwen3.8 Max Preview accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.8 Max Preview handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.8 Max Preview is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is the newest, released Aug 11, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max Preview came out Jul 19, 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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