Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Anthropic · US  |  NVIDIA · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 for agentic coding — 77.2% on swe-bench verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch or computer use and gui automation (61.4% osworld at launch). Pick NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b) or 1m-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% ruler @ 1m). Choose NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Claude Sonnet 4.5 if you want a managed API.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (NVIDIA) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is september 2025's coding state of the art at $3/$15 — still supported, but 200K-capped and twice superseded. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is nVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. They diverge most on price, context window, open vs. closed weights and coding benchmarks — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Sonnet 4.5NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super
ProviderAnthropic (US) NVIDIA (US)
ReleasedSeptember 29, 2025 March 11, 2026
Context window200K (~300 pages) 1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)$3/$15 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?No — API only Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, image, code text, code
SWE-Bench Verified77.2% 60.47%
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

Agentic coding — 77.2% on SWE-Bench Verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch

Claude Sonnet 4.5

It scores 77.2% on SWE-Bench Verified against NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super's 60.47% — a 16.7-point edge on real repository work.

Computer use and GUI automation (61.4% OSWorld at launch)

Claude Sonnet 4.5

September 2025's coding state of the art at $3/$15 — still supported, but 200K-capped and twice superseded — and it leads SWE-Bench Verified 77.2% to 60.47%.

Long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 lists long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks among its strengths; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super does not.

High-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context — and it carries the larger 1M context.

1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its 1M window holds about 5× more than Claude Sonnet 4.5's 200K in a single prompt.

Strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context — and its weights are open while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is API-only.

Lowest cost at scale

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Claude Sonnet 4.5's $3/$15 per 1M tokens.

Largest single-prompt input

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its 1M window is about 5× larger than Claude Sonnet 4.5's 200K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Claude Sonnet 4.5, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Claude Sonnet 4.5 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is agentic coding — 77.2% on swe-bench verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch

Claude Sonnet 4.5

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

That is its strongest area.

Claude Sonnet 4.5: where it fits

September 2025's coding state of the art at $3/$15 — still supported, but 200K-capped and twice superseded. Released September 29, 2025 by Anthropic, it is built for agentic coding — 77.2% on SWE-Bench Verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch, computer use and GUI automation (61.4% OSWorld at launch), long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks, and tracking its own remaining token budget natively, which few models do.

Its trade-offs are real: superseded twice — Sonnet 4.6 and Sonnet 5 match or beat it at the same or lower price, capped at 200K since Anthropic retired its 1M beta in April 2026, while its successors ship 1M as standard, and missing the modern API surface: no adaptive thinking, no effort control, and half the max output of newer Sonnets. At $3 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super: where it fits

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. Released March 11, 2026 by NVIDIA, it is built for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B), 1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M), strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025), and fully open weights, datasets, and recipes for self-hosting.

Its trade-offs: text-only; no image, audio, or video input, and requires roughly 8x H100-80GB GPUs to self-host at BF16. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Claude Sonnet 4.5 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super better for coding?

On SWE-Bench Verified, Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores 77.2% and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super scores 60.47% — Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the measurable edge.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is API-metered at $3/$15 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super — 1M vs 200K, about 5× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Sonnet 4.5, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super — released March 11, 2026, about 5 months after Claude Sonnet 4.5.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.