# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs ZAYA1-8B (slim)

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B scores 64.7 (B) to ZAYA1-8B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B scores 64.7 (B) on agent readiness against ZAYA1-8B's 61 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: B 64.7, rank #20 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b.min.md
- ZAYA1-8B: C 61, rank #85 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zaya1-8b.min.md
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, good for Agents on one 24 to 32 GB GPU or Mac that want a fast tool-calling reasoning model with long context and a permissive licence Ahead on Reach, 85 against 80; Risk, 75 against 55; Agent interface, 90 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 75 against 50.
- ZAYA1-8B, good for People who want a small, fast reasoning model for maths and code and can live without tool calling

| Category | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 85 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 75 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 90 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 75 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | NVIDIA | Zyphra |
| Licence | OpenMDW-1.1 | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-08-11 | 2026-07-02 |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Agent interface, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +30: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 90 (The chat template earns 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); ZAYA1-8B 60 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +25: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 75 (The model card earns 20, all seven items with limitations in the linked subcard.); ZAYA1-8B 50 (Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- Risk, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +20: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 75 (File safety earns 25, safetensors only with no Python files, and nothing from the repository runs to load it or parse its output.); ZAYA1-8B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.)
- Reach, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +5: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 85 (Memory earns 25, since ggml-org's 18.9 GB Q4_0 GGUF and Ollama's 19 GB nvfp4 build both need under 24 GB with the fifth added.); ZAYA1-8B 80 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB.)