Kimi K3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. Kimi K3 was released in July 2026, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) followed a month later in August 2026. Kimi K3 is the larger model at roughly 2.8 trillion parameters, against 30 billion for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).
We have 3 benchmark results for Kimi K3 and 4 benchmark results for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B), but they overlap on a single test: GPQA, where Kimi K3 scores 94.0% against 75.0%.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is the cheaper API at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens, roughly 60 times cheaper than Kimi K3 at $3 and $15. Kimi K3 takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). Kimi K3 accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | Kimi K3 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Moonshot AI | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | July 16, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | 2.8T | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 262K |
| Context (output) | 1.0M | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $3.00 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $15.00 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 95.7% | 78.5% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| GPQA | 94.0% | 75.0% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Kimi K3 — 1.0, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.8.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 72.0x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $3.00/1M tokens.
Kimi K3 supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is newer: released 8/11/2026 vs 7/16/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Kimi K3 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — Kimi K3 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — Kimi K3 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The Kimi K3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Kimi K3 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.