Llama 3.3 70B Instruct vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
For a typical chat reply (2,000 tokens in, 400 out), Llama 3.3 70B Instruct costs 1.4× as much as Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: $0.328 against $0.24 per 1,000 requests at list price on 2026-09-28.
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.08 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $0.32 | $0.20 |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Classification or routing (600 tokens in, 10 out), per 1,000 | $0.0632 | $0.05 |
| Chat reply (2,000 in, 400 out), per 1,000 | $0.328 | $0.24 |
| Retrieval-augmented answer (8,000 in, 500 out), per 1,000 | $0.96 | $0.74 |
| Confidence signal | yes | yes |
| Tool calling | yes | yes |
| BANKING77, correct of 400 | 305 | 255 |
Which one should carry your traffic?
If Nemotron 3.5 Lightning answers your requests as well as Llama 3.3 70B Instruct, moving that traffic saves 27% on chat-shaped requests. Averages cannot tell you whether it does for your requests. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning exposes a confidence signal, so Gimbix can let it answer first and hand unsure cases to Llama 3.3 70B Instruct.
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct profile · Nemotron 3.5 Lightning profile · Measure it on your traffic