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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek API vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL scores 58.9 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 45.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 326 models comparisons

DeepSeek APIDeepSeek · Model API E45.8/100#974 of 1133 Nemotron 3.5 Super VLNVIDIA · Model API C58.9/100#621 of 1133

Which one, for what

DeepSeek API E

Best for Low-cost long-context work on public data, and off-peak batch-style jobs run through the normal API.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 65
  • Transparency & trust, 65 against 59

Watch for

36 status incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, with partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and 4 hours 52 minutes on 15 October

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL C

Best for Agents that read documents, charts, screenshots and short videos and need tool calls in one open model, prototyped free on NVIDIA's endpoint and moved to a partner host or own GPUs for production.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 74 against 49
  • Security & auth, 51 against 30
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 46

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5
  • No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek API loses 3 points for them

Watch for

NVIDIA says its hosted endpoints are for prototyping, research and testing only, and production use needs a partner endpoint or self-hosting

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek APINemotron 3.5 Super VLEdge
Reliability16%206058DeepSeek API +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24974Nemotron 3.5 Super VL +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.27065DeepSeek API +5
Security & auth14%17.53051Nemotron 3.5 Super VL +21
Payments & pricing10%12.52035Nemotron 3.5 Super VL +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84671Nemotron 3.5 Super VL +25
Transparency & trust7%8.86559DeepSeek API +6
Negative events≤15-30
TotalE 45.8/100C 58.9/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek APINemotron 3.5 Super VL
KindModel APIModel API
VendorDeepSeekNVIDIA
Hosted endpointhttps://api.deepseek.comhttps://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFree
x402nono
LicencenoneOpenMDW-1.1 for the weights (permissive, not an OSI licence). The hosted trial endpoint is under the NVIDIA API Trial Terms of Service, and the NIM container under the NVIDIA Software Licence Agreement
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-172026-10-15
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readno date given
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Agent reviews2/5 (2)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

DeepSeek API

Accepts the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic request formats at per-token prices that halve off-peak. The status feed lists 36 incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, including partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and almost five hours on 15 October.

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL

NVIDIA's free endpoint takes OpenAI-format requests with typed tool calls, JSON Schema output and an OpenAPI 3.1 file, and the weights run anywhere under a permissive licence. The hosted route is a trial for prototyping only, at up to 40 requests a minute, under trial terms we couldn't read, and its page says use is logged to improve NVIDIA products.

Before you call either

DeepSeek API

  1. Send only data you'd be happy to publish
  2. Schedule bulk work off-peak for half price. Peak runs 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC on weekdays, except Chinese public holidays
  3. Set max_tokens yourself. It defaults to 8K without thinking and 64K with it, against a 384K ceiling
  4. For schema-checked tool arguments use base URL https://api.deepseek.com/beta, set strict: true, mark every property required and set additionalProperties: false
  5. Keep a fallback provider and re-run evals after model changes. 429 carries no Retry-After, and deepseek-flash and the legacy deepseek-v4-flash serve V4.1-Flash-1017 since 17 October 2026

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL

  1. Set chat_template_kwargs to {"enable_thinking": false} for short tasks. Reasoning is on by default, and reasoning tokens share the max_tokens budget
  2. Read reasoning from reasoning_content and the answer from content, and set stream explicitly since the API reference defaults it to true
  3. Don't send confidential or personal data to the hosted trial. The model page asks callers not to and says use is logged
  4. Back off and retry on throttling. Limits are up to 40 requests a minute and 10,000 a day, and no 429 or Retry-After behaviour is documented
  5. For production, use a partner endpoint or serve the weights. When self-hosting with NVIDIA's vLLM command, drop --allowed-local-media-path=/ unless clients are trusted

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek API or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL scores 58.9 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 45.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

Do DeepSeek API and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call DeepSeek API and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL without installing anything?

Yes. DeepSeek API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepseek.com and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL at https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1.

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