Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) | NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.16 | $0.2 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.64 | $0.6 |
Verdict. NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 1–0 across 1 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.1× the per-million-token cost, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) is strongest on Intelligence Index (8.5). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) leads on Intelligence Index (8.8).
Speed. Throughput is comparable — 104 tok/s vs 120 tok/s — so generation speed shouldn't drive your choice here. Look at the per-benchmark wins instead.
Provider. Alibaba and NVIDIA sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Alibaba tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while NVIDIA 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): Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) costs $14.40 ($173/year); NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) costs $15.00 ($180/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $2.08/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $2.20/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $96/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $100/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
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
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 NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning).
NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) wins 1 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 120 tok/s vs 104 tok/s. Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (2.44s vs 3.37s).
Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 32B (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.