Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Qwen3.6 27B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Qwen3.6 27B 65, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62). The right pick depends on what you value most.
NVIDIANemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
62/100- ECI146.2
- Price$0.50 / $2.50
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
68/100- ECI143.9
- Price$0.248 / $1.49
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.6 27B
65/100- ECI146.5
- Price$0.60 / $3.60
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.6 27B 65/100, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 27B for raw capability, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.6 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B $1.00 · Qwen3.6 27B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3B and Qwen3.6 27BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 73 | 70 | 74 |
| Price | 25% | 50 | 62 | 44 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 45 | 90 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 62/100 | 68/100 | 65/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIA | Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 146.2 | 143.9 | 146.5 (best) |
| ECI rank | #70 of 148 | #83 of 148 | #68 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 85.4% | 84.9% | 85.9% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 20.4% | 35.1% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 86.7% | 86.7% | 91.1% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.248 (best) | $0.60 |
| Output | $2.50 | $1.49 (best) | $3.60 |
| Cached input | $0.15 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.00 | $0.557 (best) | $1.35 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Nvidia API | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b | qwen3.6-35b-a3b | qwen3.6-27b |
| API providers | 21 | 34 (best) | 27 |
| Released | Jun 4, 2026 | Apr 17, 2026 | Apr 22, 2026 |
| 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 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
- Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Qwen3.6 27B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.6 27B 65/100, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 62/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 27B for raw capability, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B costs $0.50 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Nvidia API price); Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (1.8× as much) and $1.35 for Qwen3.6 27B (2.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.6 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148), Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 (#70 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.2–147.9 vs 143.9–148.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 85.4%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 27B 91.1%, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 86.7%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Qwen3.6 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 27B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B. Maximum output per response: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 35B-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?
Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B is the newest, released Jun 4, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 2026; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B came out Apr 17, 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.
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