Muse Spark 1.2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Muse Spark 1.2 is developed by Meta, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. Both were released in August 2026. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has a published size of about 30 billion parameters; Meta has not disclosed the parameter count of Muse Spark 1.2.
We have 3 benchmark results for Muse Spark 1.2 and 13 benchmark results for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B), but they overlap on a single test: Terminal-Bench 2.1, where Muse Spark 1.2 scores 83.0% against 24.6%.
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 2 times cheaper than Muse Spark 1.2 at $0.10 and $0.20. Muse Spark 1.2 takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). Muse Spark 1.2 accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Meta | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | August 5, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 262K |
| Context (output) | 131K | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.10 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 71.0% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 83.0% | 24.6% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Both models show equal results — the choice depends on your specific use case.
Both models show comparable average scores: Muse Spark 1.2 — 0.7, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 1.2x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $0.10/1M tokens.
Muse Spark 1.2 supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Both models were released around the same time: 8/5/2026 and 8/11/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The Muse Spark 1.2 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 Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.