NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Analysis Summary
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is NVIDIA's affordable model for integrated text workflows, with a 262K context window and native tool and function-calling support. Its low input and output prices make it suitable for applications that need frequent calls or substantial context without premium token costs.
The model can handle routing, extraction, templated responses, and bounded tool operations, especially where a workflow includes validation and fallback logic. Its measured reasoning, coding, and agentic capability is limited compared with current flagship systems, so it should not be trusted alone with complex software engineering, strategic analysis, or unsupervised client communication.
Use it for economical routine traffic and lightweight orchestration, while reserving harder tasks for a stronger model.
Assessed September 7, 2026
Editorial notes
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning combines very low pricing with a 262K context window and tool and function-calling support. Its measured reasoning and coding are limited, making it better for routine automation than complex client work.
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DFO Verdict
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning combines very low pricing with a 262K context window and tool and function-calling support. Its measured reasoning and coding are limited, making it better for routine automation than complex client work.
How NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning compares
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning ranks #188 of 437 AI models we track for overall intelligence, #124 of 209 for coding, #130 of 191 for agentic tasks. Its 262K-token context window is larger than 71% of the models we list. At $0.08 per million input tokens it is cheaper than 71% of comparable models.
Dark bar = input · light bar = output, scaled to the priciest peer.
1M tokens ≈ 8 full-length novels or ~2,500 pages of business documents in a single request.
Strongest on value. The pulled-in intelligence corner is the trade-off, and if the shape matters more than the price, this is your model.
Compare shapes side-by-side →Pricing
| Token Type | Cost per 1M tokens | Cost per 1K tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.08 | $0.000080 |
| Output | $0.20 | $0.000200 |
What would NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost your business?
Pick the job that looks most like yours, then fine-tune with the sliders. Estimates update live.
A website chatbot handling around 100 customer conversations a day, a few short messages each.
Full calculator with 772 models → Price Calculator
These numbers get smaller with the right architecture.
We route routine calls to cheap models and save NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for the hard ones. Most clients cut their estimate by 60-80%.
Talk to our teamAbout NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is an open mixture-of-experts model from NVIDIA, with 3B active parameters out of 30B total. It is suited for high-throughput agentic workloads and specialized tasks that..
Frequently asked questions about NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
How much does NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens.
What is the context window of NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a context window of 262,144 tokens (262K).
Is NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning good for coding?
On our coding benchmark index, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning ranks #124 of 209 models, placing it in the broader range of the field for code generation and debugging.
What can NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning do?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning supports tool use and function calling.
Who created NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA and was released on August 11, 2026.