NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is a reasoning model from NVIDIA released on Aug 11, 2026. It reads text and writes text, with a 1M token context window.
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Its weights are open, so you can host it yourself.
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index it scores 12.9, which places it at number 36 among the 43 models I track with independent scores.
- Modalities
- In / out price
- n/a
- Context
- 1M
- Max output
- n/a
- Released
- Aug 11, 2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- n/a
- Tool calling
- Structured output
- Reasoning
- Prompt caching
- Open weights
- Free to use
Independent benchmarks
Measured by third parties, not reported by NVIDIA. Each links to its source and shows the date I checked it.
A composite of 10 independent evaluations (agents 30%, coding 20%, scientific reasoning 20%, general 30%), run by Artificial Analysis on each model, version 4.3.2.
Artificial Analysis, checked Oct 10, 2026
Human preference: people compare two anonymous answers and pick the better one. Ratings from the Text Arena overall board, style control on.
Arena (formerly LMArena), checked Oct 10, 2026
Median output tokens per second measured by Artificial Analysis on the provider API, for the same model setting as its index score.
Artificial Analysis, checked Oct 10, 2026
Benchmarks NVIDIA reports (4)
- swe-bench-verified (SWE-bench Verified, NeMo Evaluator)51.56%
- terminal-bench-2.1 (Terminal-Bench 2.1, NeMo Evaluator)24.58%
- gpqa-diamond (GPQA Diamond (no tools))75.44%
- hle-no-tools (HLE (text-only, no tools))11.72%
Labs pick their own settings and harnesses, so compare these only within one lab.
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NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B questions
What is the context window of NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?
1,000,000 tokens of input. As a rough guide, a million tokens is around 750,000 English words.
Does NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B support tool calling?
Not through the standard tools parameter. For an agent that calls your APIs, pick a model from the alternatives below that does.
Is NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B open source?
Its weights are published, so you can run it on your own hardware or a cloud of your choice. Read the license before commercial use.
When was NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B released?
Aug 11, 2026.
How good is NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B compared with other models?
It scores 12.9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and 1349 on the Arena text leaderboard. Benchmarks are a shortlist, not a verdict: test the top two or three candidates on your own tasks before you commit.
Catalog data from models.dev (MIT licensed), refreshed daily, last on Oct 15, 2026. Independent scores from my hand checked rankings, sources linked above. The summary is written from these facts.
Building on NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?
I test your real tasks on it and the two closest alternatives, then ship the agent on whichever wins on cost and accuracy.
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