Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,287.1397% of row best · rating · llama-4-maverick-17b-128e-instruct; 95% CI [1282.87677682, 1291.39199009]; votes 39349; rank 243 | 1,331.84100% of row best · rating · nvidia-nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4; 95% CI [1322.39322537, 1341.28358716]; votes 4533; rank 207 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 0 benchmark wins | 1 benchmark winOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Meta | NVIDIA |
| Family | Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e Instruct | Nvidia Nemotron 3 5 Lightning |
| Model | Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Version | Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2025-04-05 | 2026-08-11 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000K | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | 401.6B | 30B |
| Active parameters | 17B | 3B |
| License | other | openmdw-1.1 |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Openrouter (Standard) | Fireworks Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, tools | agents, chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
17 comparable fields · 12 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct Capabilities
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
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Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B FAQs
Is Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
Only Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct has a directly sourced input price: $0.20 per million tokens. Only Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct has a directly sourced output price: $0.696 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has the larger sourced context window. Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct supports 1,000K and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B supports 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct is open weight; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is open weight.
Can Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B understand images?+
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct is documented with image input; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct is — and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is —.
Do Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B support reasoning and tool use?+
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct: tool calling and image input. NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: reasoning and tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct has 1 sourced provider route; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has 1, a tie.
Which offers better value, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.