Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) vs Qwen3.8 Max: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is developed by NVIDIA, while Qwen3.8 Max comes from Alibaba. Both were released in August 2026. Qwen3.8 Max is the larger model at roughly 2.4 trillion parameters, against 30 billion for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).
We have 4 benchmark results for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and 2 benchmark results for Qwen3.8 Max, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.
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 50 times cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max at $2.50 and $6.25. Qwen3.8 Max takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text as input, while Qwen3.8 Max accepts text and images.
| Characteristic | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Company | NVIDIA | Alibaba |
| Release Date | August 11, 2026 | August 2, 2026 |
| Parameters | 30B | 2.4T |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Context (input) | 262K | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 262K | 131K |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.05 | $2.50 |
| Output Price / 1M | $0.20 | $6.25 |
| Average Score | 78.5% | 93.0% |
Verdict
Both models show equal results — the choice depends on your specific use case.
Both models show comparable average scores: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.8, Qwen3.8 Max — 0.9.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 35.0x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $2.50/1M tokens.
Qwen3.8 Max supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Both models were released around the same time: 8/11/2026 and 8/2/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which model is cheaper — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which has a larger context window — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Qwen3.8 Max?
The Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) and Qwen3.8 Max comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) or Qwen3.8 Max page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.