Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free model profile
Evidence snapshot:
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is a NVIDIA model profile with a 1,000,000-token context window. The dated catalog snapshot records text modalities and interfaces for reasoning controls, text generation, tool calling.
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 benefit from domain-specific customization.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free is a reference profile: NVIDIA publishes it, Kendr documents it for comparison, and it carries no Kendr alias to call.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free is an independent knowledge profile. It does not claim that Kendr hosts the model, quote a Kendr customer price, promise API availability, or advertise a Kendr routing receipt.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free accepts text and returns text. The snapshot records reasoning controls, text generation, and tool calling as capabilities or interfaces.
No comparable unit price is present in the 2026-09-06 snapshot. A zero placeholder is not presented as a free-price claim.
The 2026-09-06 snapshot includes 1 Artificial Analysis index and AutoExacto results for 4 provider observations. Publisher-reported launch results are labeled and are not presented as Kendr measurements; scores from different suites are not treated as interchangeable.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free ranked #21 in the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset as of 2026-09-06. Observed within the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset; this is not global AI market share.
Profile data was reviewed for the 2026-09-06 snapshot. Claims retain their source dates, and unavailable fields are shown as unavailable instead of estimated.
Profile facts
- Profile type
- Model research profile
- Provider or publisher
- NVIDIA
- Context window
- 1,000,000 tokens
- Snapshot date
- 2026-09-06
- Knowledge cutoff
- Not disclosed
- Reference catalog ID
- nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning:free
When to pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free is a reference profile: NVIDIA publishes it, Kendr documents it for comparison, and it carries no Kendr alias to call.
Each condition below is derived from this model's own values in the 2026-09-06 snapshot, compared only against models publishing the same field.
- Reach for it when cost is the binding constraint. At $0 in and $0 out per 1M tokens, combined token price sits in the cheapest quarter of the 146 models publishing both rates in this snapshot.
- Reach for it when the model has to call tools. Tool calling is recorded in the snapshot, so this route can drive an agent loop rather than only answer in prose.
- Look elsewhere when you need to call it through Kendr today. This is a research reference profile with no Kendr alias. The facts and evidence here are published for comparison; the model is not routable on Kendr.
Context, modalities, and identity
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free accepts text and returns text. The snapshot records reasoning controls, text generation, and tool calling as capabilities or interfaces.
- Provider or publisher
- NVIDIA
- Context window
- 1,000,000 tokens
- Maximum output
- 65,536 tokens
- Input modalities
- text
- Output modalities
- text
- Knowledge cutoff
- Not disclosed
Model overview
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 benefit from domain-specific customization.
- Reference model ID
- nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning:free
- Canonical version
- nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning-20260807
- Hugging Face ID
- nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-BF16
Capabilities and supported controls
Capabilities and parameters are reported from the dated catalog and source records; their presence does not guarantee identical behavior across every provider route.
- Supported parameters
- include_reasoning, max_tokens, reasoning, seed, temperature, tool_choice, tools, top_p
- reasoning controls
- text generation
- tool calling
Dated pricing snapshot
No comparable unit price is present in the 2026-09-06 snapshot. A zero placeholder is not presented as a free-price claim.
These are dated third-party reference prices, not Kendr prices or an availability offer. Routes, tiers, caching, region, and provider policy can change the landed price.
- Price date
- 2026-09-06
- Input
- No verified rate
- Cached input
- No verified rate
- Output
- No verified rate
Provider routes, performance, and uptime
The snapshot retains 1 provider endpoint. Provider prices, context limits, p50 performance, and uptime can differ by route and are not Kendr guarantees.
- Active provider endpoints
- 1
- Best p50 latency
- 1.75 s
- Best p50 throughput
- 28 tok/s
- Availability with routing
- 98.14% over the sampled window
- Availability without routing
- 98.14% over the sampled window
- Performance date
- 2026-09-06
| Provider | Quantization | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cache read / 1M | Context | p50 latency | p50 throughput | Uptime (1d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | nvfp4 | $0 / 1M | $0 / 1M | No verified rate | 1,000,000 tokens | 1.75 s | 28 tok/s | 99.70% |
Benchmark evidence and limitations
The 2026-09-06 snapshot includes 1 Artificial Analysis index and AutoExacto results for 4 provider observations. Publisher-reported launch results are labeled and are not presented as Kendr measurements; scores from different suites are not treated as interchangeable.
Third-party catalog fields normalized from the cited model dataset; benchmark methodology and coverage differ by source.
- Coding Index
- 26.8
- AutoExacto coverage
- 4 provider observations over 32 days
AutoExacto provider benchmarks
Rolling provider observations from the cited third-party benchmark view. The lookback is 32 days; GPQA Diamond and TAU-Bench Airline measure different abilities and should not be blended into one score.
| Provider | GPQA Diamond | TAU-Bench Airline | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| auto-routing | 69.14% | — | 3 |
| CoreWeave | 68.39% | — | 4 |
| DeepInfra | 65.63% | — | 3 |
| Venice | 63.09% | — | 2 |
Popularity and market context
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free ranked #21 in the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset as of 2026-09-06. Observed within the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset; this is not global AI market share.
- Third-party catalog rank
- #21
- Global market share
- Not inferred
- Observation date
- 2026-09-06
Frequently asked questions
When should I use Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free is a reference profile: NVIDIA publishes it, Kendr documents it for comparison, and it carries no Kendr alias to call. Reach for it when cost is the binding constraint: At $0 in and $0 out per 1M tokens, combined token price sits in the cheapest quarter of the 146 models publishing both rates in this snapshot. Reach for it when the model has to call tools: Tool calling is recorded in the snapshot, so this route can drive an agent loop rather than only answer in prose. Look elsewhere when you need to call it through Kendr today: This is a research reference profile with no Kendr alias. The facts and evidence here are published for comparison; the model is not routable on Kendr.
What is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is a NVIDIA model profile with a 1,000,000-token context window. The dated catalog snapshot records text modalities and interfaces for reasoning controls, text generation, tool calling.
What context window does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free have?
The dated profile lists 1,000,000 tokens of context and up to 65,536 output tokens. Provider routes, variants, and runtime configuration can impose lower effective limits.
What benchmark evidence is available for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free?
The 2026-09-06 snapshot includes 1 Artificial Analysis index and AutoExacto results for 4 provider observations. Publisher-reported launch results are labeled and are not presented as Kendr measurements; scores from different suites are not treated as interchangeable. Third-party catalog fields normalized from the cited model dataset; benchmark methodology and coverage differ by source.
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free available through Kendr?
This is an independent knowledge profile, not a Kendr-hosted availability claim. Check Kendr's live public model API for currently enabled Kendr aliases.
Does the popularity rank represent Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free's global market share?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Free ranked #21 in the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset as of 2026-09-06. Observed within the cited trailing-7-day third-party catalog usage dataset; this is not global AI market share. No global market-share percentage is inferred when the source does not publish one.
Sources and evidence dates
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning third-party catalog record (catalog, checked 2026-09-06)
- Third-party model catalog methodology (methodology, checked 2026-09-06)
- NVIDIA official model documentation (primary, checked 2026-09-06)
- Artificial Analysis capability indices methodology (benchmark, checked 2026-09-06)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning third-party catalog record (benchmark, checked 2026-09-06)