Compare / Step3-VL-10B vs Nemotron Nano 9B v2
Step3-VL-10B vs Nemotron Nano 9B v2
Updated November 2026
Verdict
Step3-VL-10B and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 are roughly tied on the Small LM Index (53.2 vs 52.9). On the 5 benchmarks both labs report, Step3-VL-10B wins 3 and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 wins 2. Both need about 8 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization. Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself.
Pick Step3-VL-10B if…
- you need precise instruction following
- you need a permissive license (Apache-2.0)
- you need image input
Pick Nemotron Nano 9B v2 if…
- you build agents that call tools
- you work with long documents
- you want the more widely used model (more quantized builds and community support)
Specifications
| Step3-VL-10B | Nemotron Nano 9B v2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 53.2 (likely 40–64) | 52.9 (likely 50–56) |
| Lab | StepFun · China | NVIDIA · United States |
| Released | 2026-01 | 2025-08-18 |
| Parameters | 10B (dense) | 8.9B (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~8 GB | ~6.2 GB |
| Context window | 64K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Input | text, image | text |
| Reasoning | Always thinks | Hybrid (thinking on/off) |
| License | Apache-2.0 | NVIDIA Open Model |
| API price / 1M tokens | Self-host only | Self-host only |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | — | 133.7K |
Benchmarks
Higher is better. Bold marks the winner where both labs report a score. ≈ marks the index model's estimate for a score that wasn't reported, ✓ an independent measurement and * a score measured by another lab.
| Benchmark | Step3-VL-10B | Nemotron Nano 9B v2 |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | ≈ 73 | 74.2✓ |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 69.0✓ | 57.0✓ |
| Humanity's Last Exam Reasoning | 10.8✓ | 4.9✓ |
| AIME Math | ≈ 70 | 69.7✓ |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | ≈ 56 | 72.4✓ |
| τ²-Bench Agentic | 16.1✓ | 21.9✓ |
| IFBench Instruction following | 50.2✓ | 27.6✓ |
| AA-LCR Long context | 0.0✓ | 22.7✓ |
Scores are mostly reported by each lab with its own settings, so small gaps are noise. See the methodology. Open in the interactive comparison to add more models.
Questions
Which is better, Step3-VL-10B or Nemotron Nano 9B v2?
Step3-VL-10B and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 are roughly tied on the Small LM Index (53.2 vs 52.9). On the 5 benchmarks both labs report, Step3-VL-10B wins 3 and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 wins 2.
Which is cheaper to run?
Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself. Both need about 8 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization.
Which has the longer context window?
Nemotron Nano 9B v2 has the longer context window: 128K tokens against 64K.
Can I use Step3-VL-10B and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 commercially?
Step3-VL-10B is released under Apache-2.0 and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 under NVIDIA Open Model. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.