Kimi K3 (Max) vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Max) by Kimi or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Max) scores 34.7 points higher (43.6 vs 8.9) but costs 57× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $63.7; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoni… when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Max) | NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 43.6 | 8.9 | −79.6% NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nan… is 79.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,658.07 | $63.74 | −98.3% NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nan… is 98.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 48.09s | 10.12s | −79.0% NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nan… is 79.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.05 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) vs Kimi K3 (Max): 79.6% less intelligence, 98.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Medium) scores 34.50 for $56.4.
Kimi K3 (Max)NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/nvidia-nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/nvidia-nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill