Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 if…
- you want the newer model — released 2026-09-23, 9 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 vs NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you want the newer model, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | NVIDIA |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $0.06 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $6.00 | $0.24 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $3.75 | $0.10 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 17% | 80% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 262K tokens (~393 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 47% | 47% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 236K tokens (~176,900 words) |
| Input types | text | text |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | Yes |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2025-12-14 |
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What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $345 | $9.30 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B saves $336 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $420 | $9.60 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B saves $410 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $432 | $10.08 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B saves $422 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $276 | $6.24 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B saves $270 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $156 | $3.24 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B saves $153 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | — | — | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | — | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | — | — | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | — | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | — | — | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | — | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | ✓ Yes | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- AionLabs: Aion 3.5: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24.
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: input price raised 17% ($0.05 → $0.06/1M), output price raised 17% ($0.20 → $0.24/1M) on 2026-10-08 (3 price changes since 2026-03-10).
| Date | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-08 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | $0.06 | $0.24 |
| 2026-09-22 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | $0.05 | $0.20 |
| 2026-09-17 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | $0.06 | $0.24 |
Which should you choose?
Choose NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 97% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($9.30 vs $345 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 236K tokens (about 176,900 words) per response
- you want to prototype at zero cost — a free variant is listed
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 better than NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you want the newer model, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B when cost matters at scale. In short: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 when you want the newer model; NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B when cost matters at scale, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities, you generate long outputs in one go, you want to prototype at zero cost.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is cheaper: $0.10 vs $3.75 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 97% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $9.30 against $345.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens; NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs $0.06 input and $0.24 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?
Both take 262K tokens per request — roughly 393 pages of text.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B read images?
Neither accepts image input — both are text-in models.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B free to use?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B has a free variant (nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free). Free variants usually carry tighter rate limits.
What is the maximum output length of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B up to 236K (about 176,900 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 was listed on 2026-09-23; NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B on 2025-12-14.
Has the price of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B changed?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24. NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: input price raised 17% ($0.05 → $0.06/1M), output price raised 17% ($0.20 → $0.24/1M) on 2026-10-08 (3 price changes since 2026-03-10).
About the two models
AionLabs: Aion 3.5
Aion 3.5 is a multi-model roleplaying and storytelling system from AionLabs, built on the GLM family of models. It uses a collaborative generation process in which multiple specialized models each...
Full AionLabs: Aion 3.5 specs →NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is a small language MoE model with highest compute efficiency and accuracy for developers to build specialized agentic AI systems. The model is fully...
Full NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B specs →