Nemotron 3.5 Lightning API Pricing
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has tracked API rates of $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.22 per 1M output tokens. Cached input is billed at $0.05 per 1M tokens. Rates are in USD from the AI IQ dataset; see the Nemotron 3.5 Lightning model profile for capability scores.
Price List
| Rate | Price (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.07 | per 1M tokens |
| Output | $0.22 | per 1M tokens |
| Cached input (read) | $0.05 | per 1M tokens |
| Blended input + output | $0.29 | 1M in + 1M out at list price |
| Context window | 1M tokens |
Pricing References and Billing Caveats
These are the tracked rates, not a live quote. Hosted-provider choice, region, long-context tiers, caching, batch discounts, and temporary promotions can change the actual bill. Open-weight availability does not mean hosted inference is free. Workload examples assume the listed standard input and output rates, with no cache hits or discounts.
Official release and model references
These references document the model and its release; not every reference is a pricing table. Confirm the applicable endpoint and billing tier with your inference provider before purchase.
What a Workload Costs
Computed straight from the list prices above — token counts are illustrative workload sizes, not measurements of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
| Workload | Cost | Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Short chat turn | $0.00018 | 1K in / 500 out |
| Summarize a long document | $0.00744 | 100K in / 2K out |
| Agentic coding session | $0.057 | 500K in / 100K out |
| 1M input + 1M output tokens | $0.290 | 1M in / 1M out |
Effective Cost
In AI IQ's scoring, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's list price is adjusted by a token-usage multiplier of 0.917 (measured from real benchmark runs), giving an effective cost of $0.2658 per 1M input + output tokens. That places it #15 of 153 models on the effective-cost ranking (lower is cheaper). Some models spend far more tokens than others on the same task, so effective cost compares what a unit of work really costs. Method details are on the methodology page; see all models on the cost charts and the falling cost of intelligence over time.
Cheaper Alternatives at Similar Capability
Models with a lower effective cost that score within a few IQ points of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (IQ 100), or better.
| Model | Provider | IQ | Effective Cost / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| mimo-v2.5 | Xiaomi | 108 | $0.2427 |
| gemma-4-31b | 101 | $0.1371 | |
| gemma-4-26b | 99 | $0.1371 | |
| nemotron-3-nano | US (Other) | 97 | $0.1627 |