Model comparison

DeepSeek-R1 vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 40.6 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-R1 DeepSeek

42.3

Rank #115 Confirmed

Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B NVIDIA

40.6

Rank #147 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-R1 scores higher in 7 categories and Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-R1 leads 61.4 to 52.3.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $2.15 for DeepSeek-R1.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek-R1 and Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B specifications
DeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
ProviderDeepSeekNVIDIA
Noometry Index42.340.6
Released2025-01-202025-12-15
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window164K262K
Max output64K262K
Input $ / M tokens$0.50$0.05
Output $ / M tokens$2.15$0.20
Results tracked5218

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 46.3 (#68), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 40.5 (#138)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Coding14271378
Aider Polyglot71.4%—
SciCode35.7%—
WeirdML41.6%—
LiveBench Coding66.7%—
ALE-Bench804.12—
AlgoTune1.7—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-R1: 30.7 (#75), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
DeepResearch Bench35.1%—
BALROG34.9%—
METR Time Horizons53.8%—

Reasoning Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B leads

DeepSeek-R1: 18.6 (#278), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 27.1 (#124)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Hard Prompts14161348
ARC-AGI-21.3%—
SimpleBench40.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark69.4%—
ARC-AGI-121.2%—
CritPt1.1%—
LiveBench Reasoning83.2%—
LiveBench Data Analysis69.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index141.29—
ForecastBench60—
LiveBench71.6%—

Math DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 43.8 (#79), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 37.8 (#147)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Math14001371
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202566.4%—
Omni-MATH42.4%—
LiveBench Math80.7%—
MATH Level 596.6%—

Knowledge DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 44.5 (#87), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 38.2 (#148)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
Vectara Hallucination Rate11.3%9.6%
LMArena Expert13941355
GPQA Diamond76.3%—
MMLU-Pro79.3%—
Confabulations12.7%—
GPQA (HELM)66.6%—

Multilingual DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 52.4 (#85), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 45.8 (#162)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Non-English14121320
LMArena Chinese14421382
LMArena French14171396
LMArena German14041348
LMArena Japanese13911268
LMArena Korean13601269
LMArena Russian14231303
LMArena Spanish14111376

Instruction Following DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 72.0 (#143), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 68.8 (#180)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Instruction Following13821304
LiveBench Instruction Following80.5%—
IFEval78.4%—

Long Context DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 45.4 (#36), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 39.5 (#175)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Longer Query13911300
Fiction.LiveBench75%—

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 61.4 (#88), Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: 52.3 (#174)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
LMArena Text14281348
LMArena Creative Writing14051269
LMArena Multi-Turn14051319
Short-Story Creative Writing83%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1500—
WildBench82.8%—
LiveBench Language48.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-R1 better than Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 40.6 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?

Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-R1 lists at $0.50 and $2.15.

Is DeepSeek-R1 or Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B better for coding?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 46.3 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B does, with 262K tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-R1 and Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-R1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B has 18.

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