DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 17% cheaper per million tokens than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is $0.12 / $0.18 per million input/output tokens versus Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) at $0.05 / $0.20. Sources: https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com

    Sources: DeepSeek API pricing (https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing); NVIDIA pricing (https://build.nvidia.com)

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

    DeepSeek

    $0.30blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.12

    Output

    $0.18

    128K ctx|Open Source
    17%
    cheaper
    Better value

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    NVIDIA

    $0.25blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.05

    Output

    $0.20

    262.1K ctx|Open Source
    Save $0.05 per million tokens by choosing Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) over DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B.

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
    Provider
    Provider
    DeepSeek
    NVIDIA
    License
    Open Source
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2025-01-20
    2026-08-11
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price+140%
    $0.12
    $0.05
    Output Price-10%
    $0.18
    $0.20
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.30
    $0.25
    Model Details
    Context Window
    128K
    262.1K
    Max Output Tokens
    128K
    262.1K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    37 tok/s
    N/A
    Benchmarks
    11.7%
    62.1%
    75.4%
    32.6%
    37.0%
    71.9%
    52%
    83.3%
    94.3%
    45.5%
    81.9%
    17.5%
    85.4%
    Benchmark Wins
    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B 0|1 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    Verdict

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): the bottom line

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) FAQ

    Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    As of August 20, 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 17% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens ($0.25 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B costs $0.12 / $0.18 per million tokens ($0.30 blended). Sources: https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) cost per million tokens?

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B DeepSeek API pricing is $0.12 input and $0.18 output per million tokens via DeepSeek. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) NVIDIA API pricing is $0.05 input and $0.20 output per million tokens via NVIDIA. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has a published SWE-bench Verified score of 51.6%. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B supports a 128K token context window, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports 262K tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks versus DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B's 0 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) better for production use?

    Both DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) in my app?

    Yes. Call DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B through DeepSeek and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) through NVIDIA with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published DeepSeek API pricing and NVIDIA API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B supports up to 128K output tokens per request, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports up to 262K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B has a measured throughput of approximately 37 tokens/second. Throughput data for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is not yet available. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B costs $0.12/M input and $0.18/M output. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.05/M input and $0.20/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

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