API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) vs o3 Mini

Pick Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) when budget and context both matter.

Page updated:  Data confirmed:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is estimated at $0 vs $3.3 for o3 Mini, saving $3.3 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)
Context-first pickNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)
Sample savings$3.3100%
10x traffic gap$33

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $33. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)o3 Mini
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)$0$7.7
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)$0$5.5
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)$0$23.1
Cheaper input Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) $0 vs $1.1 / 1M

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for input tokens while o3 Mini costs $1.1 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) $0 vs $4.4 / 1M

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for output tokens while o3 Mini costs $4.4 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) 256K vs 200K

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) has 56K more context (1.28x larger).

Sample workload Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) $0 vs $3.3

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $3.3.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost
o3 Mini Calculating… Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) has the lower input price; Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) has the lower output price; Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) and $3.3 for o3 Mini.

Best Fit

Choose Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose o3 Mini when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is estimated at $0 vs $3.3 for o3 Mini, saving $3.3 (100% lower).
  • Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $3.3.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for input tokens while o3 Mini costs $1.1 per 1M tokens.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is free for output tokens while o3 Mini costs $4.4 per 1M tokens.
  • Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) has 56K more context (1.28x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureNewNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)
(NVIDIA)
o3 Mini
(OpenAI)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M
$0$1.1
Completion Price
per 1M tokens
$0$4.4
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output
$0$3.3
Context Window256K200K
Release Date
Popularity#96#120

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) is estimated at $0 vs $3.3 for o3 Mini, saving $3.3 (100% lower).
High-volume input processingNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workNemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps
  • gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace o3 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
  • gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace o3 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
  • gpt-oss-20b can replace o3 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
  • gpt-oss-120b can replace o3 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.13.
Larger context near this budget
  • Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
  • Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
  • Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
  • DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

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Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

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NVIDIA catalog

Review all tracked NVIDIA models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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OpenAI catalog

Check other OpenAI models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open OpenAI models
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NVIDIA Nemotron™ 3 Nano Omni is a 30B-A3B open multimodal model designed to function as a perception and context sub-agent in enterprise agent systems. It accepts text, image, video, and...

o3 Mini

OpenAI o3-mini is a cost-efficient language model optimized for STEM reasoning tasks, particularly excelling in science, mathematics, and coding. This model supports the `reasoning_effort` parameter, which can be set to...