NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning API Pricing
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.070 per 1M input tokens and $0.200 per 1M output tokens (cache reads: $0.040). Context window: 262K. Prices verified 2026-10-21 · source
Alternatives to consider
69% cheaper with nearly identical quality (20.1 vs 12.9)
+28.2 quality points for 10% more
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Token economics
| Token type | Price | vs base input |
|---|---|---|
| Standard input | $0.070 | — |
| Cache read | $0.040 | −43% |
| Output | $0.200 | — |
Prompt caching stores repeated context server-side: reads cost far less, but writes carry a one-time premium.
Higher effort = deeper thinking = more reasoning tokens billed as output.
What would NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost you per month?
| Workload | Requests/mo | Avg tokens (in/out) | Est. monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light chatbot | 10,000 | 800 / 400 | $1.36 |
| Coding agent | 5,000 | 8,000 / 2,000 | $4.80 |
| RAG pipeline | 30,000 | 4,000 / 500 | $11.40 |
| Doc summarizer | 2,000 | 20,000 / 1,000 | $3.20 |
Estimates use list prices without prompt caching. Caching can cut input cost by up to 90% on repeated context.
About NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is an open mixture-of-experts model from NVIDIA, with 3B active parameters out of 30B total. It is suited for high-throughput agentic workloads and specialized tasks that...
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Frequently asked questions
How much does NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.070 per 1M input tokens and $0.200 per 1M output tokens; cached input tokens cost $0.040 per 1M. Verified 2026-10-21 — provider source.
What is the context window?
262K tokens, with up to 236K output tokens per response. That's roughly 328 pages of text in a single request.
Does it support prompt caching?
Yes — cached input is $0.040/1M, about 43% cheaper than standard input. Agents and RAG workloads with repeated context benefit most.
What's a cheaper alternative?
ScaleDown: Summarize saves about 73% on a typical workload with comparable quality.
Official resources
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on OpenRouter — live endpoint, pricing source of record.
- Artificial Analysis leaderboard → — independent intelligence and performance rankings.
- Shred your current bill — paste a CSV and see if switching saves money.