Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Nova Lite 1.0?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, at $0.16 per million tokens against $0.42 for Nova Lite 1.0, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.

Where is each one cheapest?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: $0.16 at NanoGPT. Nova Lite 1.0: nobody goes below OpenRouter's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.42 is the number to beat.

Can I buy both from one provider?

Yes. 4 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Kilo Gateway, Nous Portal, OpenRouter. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.

Which holds more context?

Nova Lite 1.0, at 300k tokens against 262k.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nova Lite 1.0.

model vs model · prices as of 16 Sept 2026

Nova Lite 1.0 takes 3 of 5 rounds against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning counters on price: $0.16 per million tokens against $0.42, for 262k context instead of 300k.

NVIDIA

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

$0.16/M tokens

cheapest we can explain, at NanoGPT · $0.0306 per 1,000 pages

262k context · tool calling · open weights

NanoGPT ↗

Amazonwins 3 rounds

Nova Lite 1.0

$0.42/M tokens

OpenRouter list price, nothing below it is accounted for · $0.0504 per 1,000 pages

300k context · tool calling · reads images

List price in (lower wins)

$0.08/M

$0.06/M

List price out (lower wins)

$0.20/M

$0.24/M

Cheapest we can explain (lower wins)

$0.16/M at NanoGPT

none below list

Standard price (lower wins)

$0.44/M

$0.42/M

Cost per 1,000 pages (lower wins)

$0.0306

$0.0504

Context

262k tokens

300k tokens

Open weights

yes

not stated

Tool calling

yes

Structured output

yes

Reads images

yes

Reasoning

yes

Released

11 Aug 2026

5 Dec 2024

Providers selling it

Price we measure against

OpenRouter

Trains on your prompts (no is better)

not stated

no provider to check

Providers selling both · 4

NanoGPT$0.16 / $0.42
Kilo Gateway$0.38 / $0.42
Nous Portal$0.38 / $0.42
OpenRouter$0.44 / $0.42

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning then Nova Lite 1.0, per million tokens

Go further

open in the compare tool →every price for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning every price for Nova Lite 1.0

Add a third or fourth model, or switch the weighting, in the tool.

What moved in the last seven days

Nemotron 3.5 LightningCoreWeave$0.10 / $0.25 $0.07 / $0.2025% cheaper · 16 Sept 2026
Nemotron 3.5 LightningKilo Gateway$0.08 / $0.20 $0.07 / $0.1815% cheaper · 16 Sept 2026
Nemotron 3.5 LightningNous Portal$0.06 / $0.16 $0.07 / $0.187% dearer · 16 Sept 2026
Nova Lite 1.0Nous Portal$0.05 / $0.19 $0.06 / $0.2425% dearer · 16 Sept 2026

Frequently asked

Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Nova Lite 1.0?: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, at $0.16 per million tokens against $0.42 for Nova Lite 1.0, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.
Where is each one cheapest?: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: $0.16 at NanoGPT. Nova Lite 1.0: nobody goes below OpenRouter's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.42 is the number to beat.
Can I buy both from one provider?: Yes. 4 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Kilo Gateway, Nous Portal, OpenRouter. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.
Which holds more context?: Nova Lite 1.0, at 300k tokens against 262k.

Prices exclude tax and are per million tokens, read 16 Sept 2026 from each provider's own catalog. The standard price blends three parts input to one part output; a page is 600 tokens in and 60 out. Bars are scaled to the larger value in each row.