AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL Open vs o3 Paid

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs o3 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VLOpenNVIDIA
$0.15 /M input
$0.5 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
o3PaidOpenAI
$2 /M input
$8 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window200K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose Nemotron 3.5 Super VL if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose o3 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs o3 specs

SpecNemotron 3.5 Super VLo3Winner
MakerNVIDIAOpenAI–
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryNemotron 3.5 Super VL
Context window1M tokens200K tokensNemotron 3.5 Super VL
Input price$0.15/M · free self-host$2/MNemotron 3.5 Super VL
Output price$0.5/M · free self-host$8/MNemotron 3.5 Super VL
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
LicenseNVIDIA Open ModelProprietaryNemotron 3.5 Super VL

Price gap & when to choose each

16×cheaper per output token

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is ~16× cheaper than o3 on output tokens ($0.5 vs $8 per M tokens).

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Super VL if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You need the longer 1M context window
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose o3 if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityNemotron 3.5 Super VLo3
Open weights (downloadable)✓✗
Self-hostable✓✗
Runs fully offline✓✗
Vision / multimodal✓✓
Tool / function calling✓✓
1M+ context window✓✗

Benchmarks: Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs o3

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
o3
Intelligence index
13.6
–
Humanity's Last Exam
30.7%
20.1%
Long Context Reasoning
69%
74.7%
SciCode
47.8%
–
Math index
–
88.3
GPQA
–
82.7%
MMLU-Pro
–
85.3%
LiveCodeBench
–
80.8%
MATH-500
–
99.2%
AIME
–
90.3%
AIME 2025
–
88.3%
IFBench
–
71.4%
τ²-Bench
–
80.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard
–
37.1%
Speed
443.7 tok/s
146.2 tok/s
Latency
0.52s
4.39s
Intelligence per $
43.5
–

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Nemotron 3.5 Super VL and o3 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (5.0 vs 3.0 / 5)
CriterionNemotron 3.5 Super VLo3
Cost-efficiency5.03.5
Context window5.04.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality5.05.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL Open

NVIDIA · Open-weight

NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is an open multimodal mixture-of-experts model from NVIDIA, with 12B active parameters out of 120B total. It takes text, images, documents, GUI screenshots, and video...

o3 Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

o3 is a well-rounded and powerful model across domains. It sets a new standard for math, science, coding, and visual reasoning tasks. It also excels at technical writing and instruction-following....

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (free)Nemotron 3 UltraNemotron 3 Ultra (free)Nemotron 3 SuperNemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNemotron 3.5 LightningNemotron 3.5 Content SafetyNemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Nemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free)
Other variants tracked
o3 Proo3 (batch)o3 Mini (batch)

Frequently asked questions

Is Nemotron 3.5 Super VL as good as o3?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but o3 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Nemotron 3.5 Super VL locally?

Yes. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. o3 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Nemotron 3.5 Super VL?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL costs $0.5/M output vs $8/M for o3 — roughly 16x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs o3 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Super VL if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose o3 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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