Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads Nemotron 3 Ultra on coding, 74.1 to 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, at about the same output price ($2.55 vs $2.40 per million). Updated October 23, 2026; 53 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nemotron 3 Ultra or Qwen3.8 27B: which to pick
Pick Qwen3.8 27B for coding: it scores 74.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.0 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.40 vs $2.55 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or LMArena Text: math, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 53
- Nemotron 3 Ultra only
- 18
- Qwen3.8 27B only
- 32
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B scores 74.1 against 30.0.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 33.7 against 22.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 45.8 against 20.1.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 88.9% against 86.1%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra leads, 85.8% against 84.3%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a Design Arena: websites result, 1145.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.8 27B
Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.0018, Qwen3.8 27B $0.0017 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has the number, $1.26.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 30.0 from 3 benchmarks, Qwen3.8 27B 74.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 22.0 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 7.6% against Qwen3.8 27B 64.8%, 57.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nemotron 3 Ultra $2.40 against Qwen3.8 27B $2.55 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- Nemotron 3 Ultra takes 262K tokens, Qwen3.8 27B 1M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Bars | Qwen3.8 27B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 8 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 5 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 6 | ||
| Math | 2 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 5 | 3 | ||
| General | 11 | 8 | ||
| All shared boards | 19 | 33 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index18
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 86.8% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1591 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 49.3 | 68.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 86.0% | 84.0% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 69.0% | 86.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 7.6% | 64.8% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.9% | 14.2% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.1% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.9% | 58.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.8% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SciCode | 40.3% | 46.6% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| FrontierCode | 13.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| WeirdML | 43.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1467 | 1483 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1468 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1600 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1569 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1577 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.9 | 33.7 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.0 | 151.7 | Qwen3.8 27B |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 20.1 | 45.8 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.4% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 27.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 37.7% | 48.5% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 15.4% | 36.1% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 31.7% | 59.7% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| APEX-Agents | 22.7% | 47.5% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| MCP Atlas | 63.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 86.1% | 88.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 80.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.7% | 90.5% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.4% | 33.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1452 | 1459 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1472 | 1480 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1453 | 1462 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1285 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1295 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 86.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ProofBench | 2.0% | 16.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: math | 1457 | 1455 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1462 | 1458 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index53
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | 84.3% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | 82.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.1% | 70.8% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 38.6% | 28.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: science | 1465 | 1468 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1455 | 1438 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1453 | 1447 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1435 | 1438 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1145 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1135 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1138 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1142 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1132 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1146 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1069 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1100 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 75.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index118
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 76.6% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.4% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.8% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| IFBench | 81.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | 82.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| DTBench | 90.1% | 88.0% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMCA | 36.9% | 41.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 45.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1445 | 1440 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1418 | 1436 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1398 | 1383 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1269 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1454 | 1448 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1427 | 1428 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1498 | 1501 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: German | 1474 | 1442 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1388 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1385 | 1380 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: French | 1473 | 1464 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1454 | 1448 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1417 | 1414 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1385 | 1447 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1411 | 1440 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1437 | 1449 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1405 | 1405 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1397 | 1393 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1267 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1326 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1281 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1235 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1237 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.8 27B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.8 27B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.8 27B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | June 4, 2026 | August 14, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.60 | $0.425 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.40 | $2.55 |
| Coding index | 30.0 | 74.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.26 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nemotron 3 Ultra better than Qwen3.8 27B for coding?
Pick Qwen3.8 27B for coding: it scores 74.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.0 for Nemotron 3 Ultra. Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.40 vs $2.55 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or LMArena Text: math, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Qwen3.8 27B?
Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.425 and $2.55. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 27B only.
Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Qwen3.8 27B comparison based on?
53 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 23, 2026. Nemotron 3 Ultra's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.8 27B's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.