Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs Seed 1.6 Flash vs Trinity Mini
Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 78 to 71 and 65 on our weighted score.
NVIDIANemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
71/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.20
- Context262K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Flash
78/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.223
- Context256K
Arcee AITrinity Mini
65/100- ECI—
- Price$0.045 / $0.15
- Context131K
Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B (71) and Trinity Mini (65). It leads on 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 priceTrinity MiniTrinity Mini $0.071 · Seed 1.6 Flash $0.072 · Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B $0.087 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 262,144 · Seed 1.6 Flash 256,000 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.6 FlashNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: Text · Seed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images · Trinity Mini: Text
- Self-hostingNemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B and Trinity MiniPublishes downloadable weights (OpenMDW-1.1)
| Measure | Weight | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B | Seed 1.6 Flash | Trinity Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 70 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 36 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 78/100 | 65/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3BNVIDIA | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed | Trinity MiniArcee AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.05 | $0.022 (best) | $0.045 |
| Output | $0.20 | $0.223 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.0044 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.087 | $0.072 | $0.071 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.045 / $0.445 | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 9 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenOpenMDW-1.1 |
| API model ID | nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b | doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828 | — |
| API providers | 12 (best) | 2 | 1 |
| Released | Aug 11, 2026 | Aug 28, 2025 | Dec 1, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
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
- Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
- Trinity Mini$0.75
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, Seed 1.6 Flash or Trinity Mini?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B (71) and Trinity Mini (65). It leads on 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, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, Seed 1.6 Flash or Trinity Mini?
Trinity Mini is cheaper at $0.045 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Seed 1.6 Flash costs $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B costs $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers; free on Nvidia). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.071 per million tokens for Trinity Mini versus $0.072 for Seed 1.6 Flash (1× as much) and $0.087 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has not been scored yet, Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet and Trinity Mini 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, Seed 1.6 Flash and Trinity Mini 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?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 1.6 Flash and 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B up to 262,144, Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Trinity Mini up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B accepts text; Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text and images; Trinity Mini accepts text. Seed 1.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B and Trinity Mini publishes its weights (OpenMDW-1.1) and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is the newest, released Aug 11, 2026. Trinity Mini came out Dec 1, 2025; Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 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.
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