AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Nemotron 3 Ultra Open vs SASakana Namazu Paid

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Sakana Namazu 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 UltraOpenNVIDIA
$0.63 /M input
$3.13 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostYes
SASakana NamazuPaidSakana AI
$0.95 /M input
$4 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Sakana Namazu if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Sakana Namazu specs

SpecNemotron 3 UltraSakana NamazuWinner
MakerNVIDIASakana AI
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryNemotron 3 Ultra
Context window262K tokens262K tokens= Tie
Input price$0.63/M · free self-host$0.95/MNemotron 3 Ultra
Output price$3.13/M · free self-host$4/MNemotron 3 Ultra
Vision / multimodalNoYesSASakana Namazu
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Nemotron 3 Ultra
LicenseNVIDIA Open ModelProprietaryNemotron 3 Ultra

Price gap & when to choose each

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
SAChoose Sakana Namazu if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityNemotron 3 UltraSakana Namazu
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Sakana Namazu

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

Nemotron 3 Ultra
Sakana Namazu
Intelligence index
23.4
Coding index
49.3
GPQA
86.7%
Humanity's Last Exam
28.4%
Long Context Reasoning
79.3%
SciCode
40.3%
IFBench
81.4%
τ²-Bench
83.3%
τ-Bench Banking
14.2%
Terminal-Bench
53.9%
Terminal-Bench Hard
36.4%
Speed
180.1 tok/s
Latency
1.26s
Intelligence per $
21.3

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Nemotron 3 Ultra and Sakana Namazu score

🏆 Best value & openness: Nemotron 3 Ultra (4.3 vs 3.1 / 5)
CriterionNemotron 3 UltraSakana Namazu
Cost-efficiency4.04.0
Context window4.04.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality3.55.0

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 Ultra Open

NVIDIA · Open-weight

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is an open frontier-reasoning and orchestration model from NVIDIA, with 55B active parameters out of 550B total (MoE). Built on a hybrid Transformer-Mamba mixture-of-experts architecture, it...

Sakana Namazu Paid

Sakana AI · Proprietary

Sakana Namazu is a Japanese-specialized reasoning model from Sakana AI, based on Kimi K2.6 with additional training for Japanese language and business contexts. It is suited for Japanese 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 Ultra (free)Nemotron 3 SuperNemotron 3.5 LightningNemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)Nemotron 3 Super (free)Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNemotron 3.5 Content SafetyNemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free)

Frequently asked questions

Is Nemotron 3 Ultra as good as Sakana Namazu?

Nemotron 3 Ultra is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Sakana Namazu 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 Ultra locally?

Yes. Nemotron 3 Ultra has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Sakana Namazu is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Sakana Namazu — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Sakana Namazu if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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