API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewNemotron 3 Ultra vs R1

Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Ultra when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron 3 Ultra is estimated at $1.75 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $0.2 (10.3% lower).

Cost-first pickNemotron 3 Ultra
Context-first pickNemotron 3 Ultra
Sample savings$0.210.3%
10x traffic gap$2

Nemotron 3 Ultra is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $2. 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 Ultra stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickNemotron 3 UltraR1
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputNemotron 3 Ultra$3.75$4.75
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputNemotron 3 Ultra$3$3.2
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputNemotron 3 Ultra$13$13.2
Cheaper input Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.5 vs $0.7 / 1M

Nemotron 3 Ultra is $0.2 cheaper per 1M input tokens (28.6% lower; 1.4x difference).

Cheaper output Tie $2.5 vs $2.5 / 1M

Both models report the same output price at $2.5 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Nemotron 3 Ultra 1M vs 163.84K

Nemotron 3 Ultra has 836.16K more context (6.1x larger).

Sample workload Nemotron 3 Ultra $1.75 vs $1.95

Nemotron 3 Ultra is $0.2 cheaper on the standard workload (10.3% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Nemotron 3 Ultra Calculating… Estimated API cost
R1 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 Ultra has the lower input price; both models tie on output price; Nemotron 3 Ultra offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Nemotron 3 Ultra is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.75 for Nemotron 3 Ultra and $1.95 for R1.

Best Fit

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.

Choose R1 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 Ultra is estimated at $1.75 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $0.2 (10.3% lower).
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra is $0.2 cheaper on the standard workload (10.3% lower).
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra is $0.2 cheaper per 1M input tokens (28.6% lower; 1.4x difference).
  • Both models report the same output price at $2.5 per 1M tokens.
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra has 836.16K more context (6.1x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureNewNemotron 3 Ultra
(NVIDIA)
R1
(DeepSeek)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M
$0.5$0.7
Completion Price
per 1M tokens
$2.5$2.5
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output
$1.75$1.95
Context Window1M163.84K
Release Date
Popularity#91#132

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionNemotron 3 UltraOn the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron 3 Ultra is estimated at $1.75 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $0.2 (10.3% lower).
High-volume input processingNemotron 3 UltraLower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsTieLower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workNemotron 3 UltraA larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Larger context near this budget
  • Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.25 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.
  • MiMo-V2.5 offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.

Cheaper alternatives

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

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

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

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

NVIDIA catalog

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

Open NVIDIA models

DeepSeek catalog

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

Open DeepSeek models
Nemotron 3 Ultra

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is an open frontier-reasoning and orchestration model from NVIDIA, with 55B active parameters out of 550B total (MoE). Built on a hybrid Transformer-Mamba mixture-of-experts architecture, it...

R1

DeepSeek R1 is here: Performance on par with [OpenAI o1](/openai/o1), but open-sourced and with fully open reasoning tokens. It's 671B parameters in size, with 37B active in an inference pass....