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Compare/Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)

Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)vsQwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

NVIDIA

Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.19/M
Output
$0.65/M
Speed
173 tok/s
TTFT
2.39s
Alibaba

Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)

Input
$0.16/M
Output
$0.64/M
Speed
106 tok/s
TTFT
2.46s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Lower Latency
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Benchmarks (2-0)
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricNemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.19$0.16
Output ($/M tokens)$0.65$0.64
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)$0.26
Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)$0.22

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
173 tok/s
Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)
106 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
2.39s
Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)
2.46s

Editorial Analysis

Verdict. Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) wins the overall benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.

Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.

Strengths. Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is strongest on Coding Index (37.7), Intelligence Index (13.6). Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) leads on Intelligence Index (7.3).

Speed. On throughput, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) generates tokens at 173 tok/s versus 106 tok/s — about 39% faster. On time-to-first-token, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) responds in 2390ms vs 2460ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.

Provider. NVIDIA and Alibaba sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: NVIDIA tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Alibaba often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.

Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) costs $15.45 ($185/year); Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) costs $14.40 ($173/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) ≈ $2.25/run, Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $2.08/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) ≈ $103/run, Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $96/run. Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.

Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.

Head-to-head deltas

  • On throughput, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is 1.63× faster (173 tok/s vs 106 tok/s). For streaming chat or real-time agents this alone often flips the recommendation.

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
13.67.3
Coding Index
37.7—
Math Index
——
GPQA Diamond
——
MMLU-Pro
——
LiveCodeBench
——
AIME 2025
——
MATH-500
——
Humanity's Last Exam
——
SciCode
——
IFBench
——
TerminalBench
——
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)2 wins
0 winsQwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) or Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)?

Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.28/M tokens vs $0.30/M for Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 173 tok/s vs 106 tok/s. Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (2.39s vs 2.46s).

When should I use Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.