Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Step 3.5 Flash 2603 | Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.1 | $0.07 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.3 | $0.3 |
Verdict. Step 3.5 Flash 2603 and Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning split the benchmark comparison evenly at 1–1. The tiebreaker here is price, speed, and what you actually run them on.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Step 3.5 Flash 2603 is strongest on Intelligence Index (26.5). Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning leads on Intelligence Index (15.0), Coding Index (13.8).
Speed. On throughput, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning generates tokens at 326 tok/s versus 214 tok/s — about 34% faster. On time-to-first-token, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning responds in 1040ms vs 1140ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. StepFun and NVIDIA sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: StepFun 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): Step 3.5 Flash 2603 costs $7.50 ($90/year); Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning costs $6.60 ($79/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Step 3.5 Flash 2603 ≈ $1.10/run, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning ≈ $0.95/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Step 3.5 Flash 2603 ≈ $50/run, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning ≈ $44/run. Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B 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
Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.13/M tokens vs $0.15/M for Step 3.5 Flash 2603.
It's a tie — both models win 1 benchmarks each across 12 evaluated categories. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning generates tokens faster at 326 tok/s vs 214 tok/s. However, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning has lower time-to-first-token (1.04s vs 1.14s).
Choose based on your priorities: Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning for lower cost, both perform similarly on benchmarks, and Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.